Global inverse kinematics solver for linked mechanisms under joint limits and contacts
Summary
To control the motion of a virtual character with 6-DOF controllers inverse kinematics techniques
have to be used. One of these inverse kinematics techniques is the Jacobian method. This report
gives a new quaternion based Jacobian method to solve the inverse kinematics problem for the
real time motion control of a virtual character. This includes the calculation of the Jacobian
matrix which represents the change in end end effector position and orientation given the change in
configuration. Here, the configuration is given by the log values of the quaternions which represent the
relative orientation between the bones. The method uses the quaternion properties to constrain
the rotational freedom of the joints with only three joint limits. Finally, the report proposes some
methods to give a response when the virtual character collides with a virtual object.