Advanced controller for an underwater manipulator

An advanced telerobotic control system for a subsea manipulator, part of the ARM (Automated Remote Manipulation) project, is considered. The arm controls comprise a fast PC surface graphics control unit linked via the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) umbilical to a 68000, VME-bus based controller. This provides supervisory control, including manual master-slave telemanipulation and fully automated, robotic task execution. A 3D video representation of the ROV, manipulator and work site is presented to the operator using solid shaded colour graphics, and can be used to monitor the arm whilst planning or executing tasks. The viewpoint can be modified to aid visualisation, and secondary windows used to display plan and elevation views of the arm and its work area. Also the arm can be viewed as if from an ROV mounted camera. It can be controlled by a choice of input devices and operated in a variety of coordinate systems. Standard serial communications have been used between the surface and subsea computers to improve readability and noise immunity. The topside computer has an update rate of 5 Hz. The subsea computer works at 50 Hz