Parallel VLSI architectures for real-time kinematics of redundant robots

Architectures for the efficient computation of redundant manipulator kinematics (direct and inverse) are described. By doing the core calculations in hardware, full use can be made of the redundancy by implementing more complex self-motion algorithms. A key component of the architecture is the calculation in VLSI hardware of the singular value decomposition of the manipulator Jacobian. CORDIC arithmetic is used in the design of the special-purpose VLSI array, which is used in computation of the direct kinematics solution (DKS), the manipulator Jacobian, and the Jacobian pseudoinverse. Application-specific (subtask-dependent) portions of the inverse kinematics are handled in parallel by a DSP processor that interfaces with the custom hardware and the host machine. The architecture and algorithm development are valid for general redundant manipulators and a wide range of processors currently available and under development commercially