Parallel computation of symbolic robot models and control laws: theory and application on transputer networks

The authors present two novel parallel algorithms for computing robot inverse dynamics and control laws starting from the customized symbolic robot models. The first algorithm resolves the scheduling problem for an array of pipelined processors. The second algorithm is devoted to parallel processors connected by a complete crossbar interconnection network. The main feature of the algorithms is that they take into account the communication delays between processors and minimize both the execution time and the communication cost. The algorithms were verified by experiments on an INMOS T800 transputer-based system. The experimental results showed that the most complicated dynamic control laws could be executed in a submillisecond range.