What does degree of freedom mean in robotics?

• A. It refers to the maximum weight a robot can lift.
• B. It refers to the speed of motion.
• C. It refers to the number of independent movements a robot can make, typically five or six in most robots.
• D. It refers to the number of axes in the hardware.

Answer: (C)

Degree of freedom describes how many independent motions the robot can perform. Each joint or axis adds one independent movement, so you need a certain number of parameters to describe the robot’s configuration and where its end effector is and how it’s oriented. In 3D space, fully specifying the end-effector’s pose typically requires three translations and three rotations, which is six DOF. Many industrial arms expose five or six DOF, depending on whether a rotational orientation about the tool axis is used or fixed. The other options miss the essence: weight capacity and speed are performance specs, and merely counting axes isn’t the same as counting independent motions. The best answer is that the degree of freedom is the number of independent movements a robot can make, usually five or six in most robots.