Development of the holonic manipulator and its control

The holonic manipulator, characterized by autonomous built-in controllers distributed in its mechanical structure is introduced. One of the advantages of the holonic manipulator is a drastic decrease in wiring complexity within the manipulator. Another advantage is its high reliability. Due to a distributed controller and a double network, the reliability of the holonic manipulator is ´scalable´. Programming the manipulator requires the coordination of the built-in controllers. Several methods for controller coordination are introduced and discussed. Finally, the application of micro-machine technology to the holonic manipulator is discussed as a most promising future direction