Denavit-Hartenberg parameters

Denavit-Hartenberg (DH) parameters are a systematic method to represent the kinematic chains of robotic arms. They simplify the mathematical modeling of robots by providing a standard notation to describe the relative positions and orientations of adjacent links. The four DH parameters—link length, link twist, link offset, and joint angle—allow for the precise description of each joint in terms of a common coordinate system, making it easier to derive the kinematic equations necessary for controlling the robot's movement.

How to use them

On the DH-parameters view, all parameters for an idealized robot are present. However, due to mechanical tolerances and assembly variance, each produced robot arm will have slightly different characteristics, than the ideal model.

These differences get measured and stored during the arm calibration before the robots leave the factory in a calibration file.

Under normal circumstances, the calibration file should not be moved or altered, but it might be appropriate in some cases.

The most common use case would be if you are running a robot simulation, you can get more accurate results by retrieving and using the same calibration data stored on the physical robot.