Here in this experiment we put the concepts of multiple transformations learnt in experiment 5a to practice with an Articulated arm experiment.

A hierarchy is an organization of things into levels. In a very general sense, he things higher up in a hierachy have control over the lower things. Here this applies to the matrix transformations.

We constructed a hierarchical articulated arm model where each node/part follows a series of transformations from the root node to its current position. The top-most object in this hierarchy is the Shoulder followed by Elbow, Forearm, Wrist and Palm. Moving the shoulder moves the rest of the parts as all others derive their transformation from the shoulder. When you move the wrist only the palm moves while the shoulder, elbow and forearm remain unchanged. This is because the wrist is lower in hierarchy than your elbow and therefore has no control on it.