Assigning coordinate frames
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To be able to determine the spatial relationship or transformation, respectively, between the links of a manipulator, local coordinate frames have to assigned to them first. There are several rules that have to be observed when assigning coordinate frames following the Denavit-Hartenberg convention.
Notation
The notation of the links and joints is shown in the figure below. A manipulator consists of links that are connected with joints. The links correspond to the rigid parts of an arm and the joints are the flexible connections between them. A joint is always assigned to the proximate link. So a link is connected with its joint to the end of link . The proximate link is then mounted to the end of via its joint . The first link is mounted on the base via joint and the end of the last link corresponds to the end-effector.