Our robot moves in a 2D plane with two translational dimensions (x and y) and one rotational dimension (yaw). Sometimes we want to know where we will end up given an instantaneous parametric velocity (dx/ds, dy/ds, dtheta/ds) and a value for the parameter (ex. time duration if the parameter ‘s’ represents time). A simple way to do this is to assume that in a given period ‘ds’ the robot moves in a straight line and then turns (or visa versa)…to obtain this, just multiply each component by ‘ds’. If ‘ds’ and curvature of the motion is small, this is a pretty good approximation. However, if ‘ds’ and curvature are large, this can introduce error that gets compounded over time, since in reality never move in a straight line, since we are simultaneously translating and rotating.
Luckily, there is a precise formula for obtaining a new pose assuming constant curvature displacement which we can borrow from the mathematical field of differential geometry (often used in PhD-level robot kinematics and computer vision). The term “twist” is borrowed from this field because constant-curvature displacement can be thought of as representing the twisting of a screw (especially if you think about the 3D case where there is also a “pitch” velocity). The “exp” and “log” functions likewise refer to the group exponential and group logarithm functions that are well defined in this field (for obtaining a new pose from a twist, and obtaining a twist from a pose, respectively).