Conversion of a servomanipulator from analog to digital control

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has developed expertise in computer control of force-reflecting master/slave servomanipulators as a result of research for the Consolidated Fuel Reprocessing Program. These computer control capabilities have been applied to a commercially available servomanipulator, the TeleOperator Systems SM-229. All of the servo drive and control circuitry has been replaced with commercially available digital controls and amplifiers, and a customer software package has been developed at ORNL. This conversion to digital computer control resulted in significant improvements in force-reflection characteristics, ease of operation, diagnostic capabilities, indexing features, and potential increased reliability. This paper describes the original system, the digital control hardware implementation, the software controls, and test results which reveal improvements in force-reflection quality. Related applications of the control system developed at ORNL will also be discussed.