Dual Quaternions as a Tool for Rigid Body Motion Analysis: A Tutorial with an Application to Biomechanics

Abstract

Dual quaternions and dual quaternion interpolation are powerful mathematical tools for the spatial analysis of rigid body motions. In this paper, after a review of some basic results and formulas, it will be presented an attempt to use these tools for the the kinematic modeling of human joints. In particular, the kinematic parameters extracted from experimentally acquired data are compared with those theoretically computed from dual quaternions rigid body motion interpolation. © 2010, Versita. All rights reserved.