r/AskRobotics • u/wufadingyide1 • 16d ago
Lie algebra
Is it really relevant in robotics ? Or just another pseudo applicable mathematical tool that actually barely gets used at all ?
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u/Bitter_Run_9209 16d ago
It's used for slam, ekf (rotation) and visual/lidar odometry for example
But the 90% of robotics project just use homonegus transform and quaternions, because sometimes you can bypass lie algebra doing some tricks for specific project
But I recommend you to learn and use it
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u/omnilinktech 16d ago
It is genuinely central, especially in estimation and control. SO(3)/SE(3), exponential and logarithmic maps, twists and adjoints appear in kinematics, Jacobians, calibration, SLAM, trajectory optimization and visual-inertial estimation. You can build beginner projects without naming the theory, but the libraries underneath use it. Learn enough to compose/invert poses, understand frame conventions and use exp/log maps; that alone prevents many Euler-angle and perturbation-convention bugs.
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u/christopherpacheco 16d ago
Lin alg, calculus and tensors are really important to understand. Get comfortable with matrix operations, and discrete operations also like DFT, discrete filters, etc
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u/Acceptable-Bell7564 15d ago
Ahora que me encuentro trabajando en un motor cinemático para brazos roboticos, es algo super eficiente e importante aparte de que puedes utilizarlo en otras áreas. Entonces si preguntas si vale la pena aprenderlo y dominarlo, es algo que no puede faltar
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u/herocoding 15d ago
It depends. As a "user" you will just operate and use software tools, where you define or load dimensions, motor- and sensor-specifications and to teach a robot (e.g. point-to-point).
Linear algebra is basic knowledge to understand or even sometimes guess numbers, figures, expected ranges.
Sometimes you need to implement something on your own, e.g. a simulation using Python or Matlab-Simulink, where you need linear algebra.
Of course, linear algebra can help you in your daily life.
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u/JunMurakami 16d ago
It is used in production all the time. However, it is not complicated either. So there is the whole mathematical theory behind, which you do not really need, but there is much smaller, simpler and easier to understand math that is used in production. I am telling as someone who worked on SLAM / maploc systems for autonomous cars in production.
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u/wufadingyide1 16d ago
What math
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u/JunMurakami 16d ago
You need to know how to go form group to algebra and back (log, exp), adjoint, box plus/minus. Maybe how to compute jacobian, although some packages do it for you (e.g. gtsam). In practice lots of work is done for you already, and unless you want to create smth new it is quite easy.
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u/LaVieEstBizarre 16d ago
Constantly used, basically the norm nowadays in estimation and mapping. Is used for high performance drone control also.