Robotics Industry Glossary
K
Kalman Filter
An optimal recursive estimator for linear Gaussian systems, widely used for sensor fusion and state tracking. Extended (EKF) and Unscented (UKF) variants handle nonlinearity.
Kinect
Microsoft’s depth-sensing camera, originally for gaming, widely adopted in robotics research for 3D perception and human tracking.
Kinematic Chain
A series of rigid links connected by joints, forming the structure of a robot arm; open chains (serial) and closed chains (parallel) are the two main types.
Kinematic Model
A mathematical description of a robot’s geometry and joint relationships, used to compute positions without considering forces.
Kinematic Redundancy
When a robot has more degrees of freedom than required for a task, enabling optimization of secondary criteria like obstacle avoidance.
Kinematics
The study of motion without considering forces, dealing with positions, velocities, and accelerations.
Kinematics And Dynamics Library (Kdl)
A library for calculating kinematics and dynamics of robotic manipulators (used in ROS).
Kinetic Energy
The energy of a robot’s motion, calculated as 21?mv2+21?I?2, important for dynamic modeling and energy-efficient planning.
KUKA
A major German manufacturer of industrial robots, cobots, and robotic software, known for high-performance articulated robots.