Robot Kinematics and Coordinate Transformations

This paper introduces a class of linearizing coordinate transformations for mechanical systems whose moment of inertia matrix has a square root which is a jacobian. The transformations, when they exist, define a local isometry from joint space to euclidean space, hence, may afford further insight into the transient behavior of robot motion. It remains to be seen whether any appreciably large class of robots admit such linearizing isometries.