This was my favorite because it was easy to follow and understand basic robotics. Though some of the material is outdated, it still gives you a lot of insight into basic manipulator mathematics. But set your expectations right-you should not expect this book to teach you basic mathematics of rotational matrices.

The first 3 chapters begin very well giving the reader decent examples with how to derive frame assignments and forward kinematic matrices. Starting with chapter 4, the book begins to descend into a nightmare of ambiguity and frustration. Typos begin cropping up every where. The author then begins to take short cuts with deriving particular formulas with no clear explanation how those formulas are derived. One example is when the author begins to explain how to solve for an inverse kinematics problem and says to use the law of cosines, but then writes a formula that is not the law of cosines with no clarification how he came to that point. Homework problems are also given, but do not reflect the few examples given within the chapter leaving the reader in a very difficult position and in most cases unable to solve the problem. I would highly recommend getting a book other than this one. If it is required for a class, make sure the teacher has sufficient supplemental material that will augment the many failings this text has.