Dr Peter Donelan

BSc(Hons) Brist, PhD S'ton

Position	Senior Lecturer
Responsibilities	Graduate Coordinator - MATH
Research Interests	Singularity theory, invariant theory, applications to robotics
Office	CO441 - Postal Address
Phone	+64 4 463 5659
Email	Peter.Donelan@msor.vuw.ac.nz

Teaching

Teaching in 2010: MATH 142 MATH 244 MATH 301 MATH 453

Biography

My research is in rigid-body kinematic geometry, including applications to the geometry of robotics. The emphasis has been on understanding and classifying the instantaneous and singular behaviour of motions and point trajectories, and the connections between them. Key to the research has been incorporating ideas from singularity theory.

Recent and current research projects:

classical invariant theory for the Euclidean group and invariants of screw systems, with Jon Selig and Deborah Crook (Master's student)
singularities of serial manipulators, with an emphasis on genericity.
Singularities in Robot Kinematics - A Publications Database Construction: Jeffrey Azzato; content and upkeep: Peter Donelan; work funded by Victoria University Research Fund and Science Faculty Research Grants. The database now contains in excess of 1100 items.

Recent Papers

Genericity Conditions for Serial Manipulators, in Advances in Robot Kinematics, Batz-sur-Mer 2008, eds J. Lenarcic and P.Wenger, Springer, Dordrecht (2008) 185-192 [abstract]
(with J M Selig) A Screw Syzygy with Application to Robot Singularity Computation, in Advances in Robot Kinematics, Batz-sur-Mer 2008, eds J. Lenarcic and P. Wenger, Springer, Dordrecht (2008) 147-156 [abstract]
Singularity-theoretic methods in robot kinematics, Robotica, 25 (2007) 641-659 [pdf]
Singularities of Robot Manipulators, in Singularity Theory, Proc. 2005 Marseille Singularity School and Conference, eds D. Chéniot et al., World Scientific, Singapore (2007) 189-218 [abstract][pdf]
(with J-P Merlet) On the Regularity of the Inverse Jacobian of Parallel Robots, in Advances in Robot Kinematics, Ljubljana 2006, eds. J. Lenarcic and B Roth, Springer, (2006) 41-48 [abstract]
(with M Cocke & C G Gibson) Trajectory Singularities for a Class of Parallel Motions, in Real and Complex Singularities, Luminy, 2004, eds. J.-P. Brasselet and M. A. S. Ruas, Birkhauser, (2006) 53--70 [abstract][pdf]
(with M Cocke & C G Gibson) Screw Systems, Singular Trajectories and Darboux-Type Motions, Ball 2000 Symposium, Cambridge UK, July 2000 [pdf]
(with M Cocke & C G Gibson) Instantaneous Singular Sets Associated to Spatial Motions, in Real and Complex Singularities, Sao Carlos, 1998, eds. F. Tari and J. W. Bruce, Res. Notes Math., 412, Chapman and Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, (2000) 147-163 [abstract][pdf]
(with Gibson C. G.) Singular Phenomena in Kinematics, in Singularity Theory, Proc European Singularities Conf., Liverpool, 1996, London Math. Soc. Lecture Notes 263, (1999) [pdf]
(with C G Gibson and W Hawes) Trajectory Singularities of General Planar Motions, Proc. Royal Soc. Edinburgh, 129A (1999) 37-55 [abstract][pdf]