Title :
Flexible Signal-Oriented Hardware Abstraction for Rapid Prototyping of Robotic Systems
Author :
Jorg, Stefan ; Nickl, Mathias ; Hirzinger, Gerd
Author_Institution :
Inst. of Robotics & Mechatronics, German Aerosp. Center, Wessling
Abstract :
Diffuse and changing specifications for the design of light-weight robots result in high design costs for the desired robotic system, especially the electronic modules and related software drivers. To reduce those costs, we created a flexible robot platform, consisting of FPGA joint modules that are connected by a high speed communication. To fully exploit the hardware flexibility, we introduce a flexible signal-oriented hardware abstraction that is based on a signal flow oriented middleware (SFMiddleware). SFMiddleware enables the transparent integration of changing joint hardware functionality with robot control applications. Utilizing a static system specification approach, we benefit from the abstraction of a middleware without the typical overhead of common middleware implementations. Thus, we achieve a small run-time footprint and control cycles of more than 10 kHz
Keywords :
control engineering computing; middleware; rapid prototyping (industrial); robots; FPGA joint modules; SFMiddleware; cost reduction; electronic modules; flexible signal-oriented hardware abstraction; hardware flexibility; light-weight robots; rapid prototyping; signal flow oriented middleware; software drivers; static system specification approach; Application software; Costs; Driver circuits; Hardware; Intelligent robots; Mechatronics; Middleware; Prototypes; Robot control; Signal design;
Conference_Titel :
Intelligent Robots and Systems, 2006 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Beijing
Print_ISBN :
1-4244-0258-1
Electronic_ISBN :
1-4244-0259-X
DOI :
10.1109/IROS.2006.281759