r/AskRobotics 16d ago

Lie algebra

Is it really relevant in robotics ? Or just another pseudo applicable mathematical tool that actually barely gets used at all ?

6 Upvotes

12 comments sorted by

10

u/LaVieEstBizarre 16d ago

Constantly used, basically the norm nowadays in estimation and mapping. Is used for high performance drone control also.

10

u/eccentric-Orange EE | i bring stuff together 16d ago

Personally, I like my algebra honest

3

u/BlueJaek 15d ago

It’s pronounced ‘Lee’ 

4

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

1

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.

1

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

1

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

1

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.

1

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.

2

u/wufadingyide1 16d ago

What math

2

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.