The kinematic image of RR, PR, and RP dyads

Abstract

SUMMARYWe provide necessary and sufficient conditions for all projective transformations of the projectivized dual quaternion model of rigid body displacements that are induced by coordinate changes in moving and/or fixed frame. These transformations fix the quadrics of a pencil and preserve the two families of rulings of an exceptional three-dimensional quadric. Moreover, we fully characterize the constraint varieties of dyads with revolute and prismatic joints in the dual quaternion model. The constraint variety of a dyad with two revolute joints is a regular ruled quadric in a three-space that contains a “null quadrilateral.” If a revolute joint is replaced by a prismatic joint, this quadrilateral collapses into a pair of conjugate complex null lines and a real line but these properties are not sufficient to characterize such dyads. We provide a complete characterization by introducing a new invariant, the “Study fibre projectivity,” and we present examples that demonstrate its potential to explain hitherto not sufficiently well-understood phenomena.