Kinematics control for a 6-DOF space manipulator based on ARM processor and FPGA Co-processor

Based on ARM processor and FPGA co-processor, kinematics control for a 6-DOF (degree of freedom) space manipulator is realized in this paper. The ARM processor uses AT91FR40162, which mainly takes charge of the tractory planning for the space manipulator. Meanwhile, using the CORDIC (Coordinate Rotation Digital Computer) algorithm, the forward and inverse kinematics computation of the space manipulator are implemented in FPGA. This approach can effectively reduce the calculation time of kinematics control and optimize real-time performance of the space manipulator. The principle and architecture of CORDIC IP core are presented, and CORDIC-based pipelines for the kinematics computation are depicted. Furthermore, a novel fault-tolerance central controller for the space manipulator using ARM processor and FPGA co-processor is developed and the control flow is presented particularly. The ground simulative zero-gravity experiment shows that the performance of the central controller meets the real-time and accuracy requirement of the space manipulator.