KDL Overview

What can I use KDL for?

• 3D frame and vector transformations: KDL includes excellent support to work with vectors, points, frame transformations, etc. You can calculate a vector product, transform a point into a different reference frame, or even change the reference point of a 6d twist. For more information take a look at the geometry documentation on the KDL homepage.

• Kinematics and Dynamics of kinematic chains: You can represent a kinematic chain by a KDL Chain object, and use KDL solvers to compute anything from forward position kinematics, to inverse dynamics. For more information take a look at the chain documentation on the KDL homepage. The kdl_parser includes support to construct a KDL chain from a XML Robot Description Format (URDF) file.

• Kinematics of kinematic trees: You can represent a kinematic chain by a KDL Chain object, and use KDL solvers to compute forward position kinematics. Currently no other solvers are provided.