Forward kinematics

An articulated six DOF robotic arm uses forward kinematics to position the gripper.
The forward kinematics equations define the trajectory of the end-effector of a PUMA robot reaching for parts.

In robot kinematics, forward kinematics refers to the use of the kinematic equations of a robot to compute the position of the end-effector from specified values for the joint parameters.[1]

The kinematics equations of the robot are used in robotics, computer games, and animation. The reverse process, that computes the joint parameters that achieve a specified position of the end-effector, is known as inverse kinematics.

Forward vs Backwards Kinematics
  1. ^ Paul, Richard (1981). Robot manipulators: mathematics, programming, and control : the computer control of robot manipulators. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. ISBN 978-0-262-16082-7.