A PC-based configuration controller for dexterous 7-DOF arms

This paper describes the architecture and performance of a PC-based configuration controller for dexterous 7-DOF manipulators. The computing platform is a 486-based personal computer equipped with a bus extender to access the robot Multibus controller, together with a single-board computer as the graphical engine, and a parallel I/O board to interface with a force-torque sensor mounted on the manipulator wrist. The Windows environment is enhanced by the iRMX real-time operating system that runs the configuration control algorithms for redundancy resolution. The position control algorithm is executed every 2.5 ms; motions can be simulated and displayed in real-time by the graphical engine on a separate monitor. The results of several experiments carried out with a Robotics Research manipulator have shown motion control capabilities comparable to those obtained with more extensive computing systems, thus validating the use of PCs for dexterous manipulator control. PC-based motion controllers for RRC arms, incorporating the configuration control software, are currently produced by the Robotics Research Corporation