Title :
A distributed I/O low-level controller for highly-dexterous snake robots
Author :
Thienphrapa, Paul ; Kazanzides, Peter
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Comput. Sci., Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD
Abstract :
A robot can be seen as a set of actuated joints, each connected to a processing unit that senses feedback signals and generates actuation commands. For robots with high locomotive sophistication, commonly seen in medical robotics, the requisite cabling and control processing can become unwieldy. Motivated by dexterous snake-like robots for minimally invasive surgery, this paper explores the use of IEEE 1394 (FireWire), attached directly to low-latency field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), to distribute I/O and centralize processing. This increases the viability of complex medical robots by reducing cabling and consolidating processing, thereby making systems more agile, reliable, and scalable.
Keywords :
actuators; controllers; distributed control; feedback; field programmable gate arrays; medical robotics; surgery; FireWire; IEEE 1394; actuated joints; actuation commands; cabling; control processing; distributed I/O low-level controller; feedback signals; field-programmable gate arrays; highly-dexterous snake robots; locomotive sophistication; medical robotics; minimally invasive surgery; processing unit; DC motors; Field programmable gate arrays; Hardware; Medical robotics; Minimally invasive surgery; Process control; Prototypes; Robot sensing systems; Shafts; Spine;
Conference_Titel :
Biomedical Circuits and Systems Conference, 2008. BioCAS 2008. IEEE
Conference_Location :
Baltimore, MD
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2878-6
Electronic_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2879-3
DOI :
10.1109/BIOCAS.2008.4696861
