Planning and control architectures for multimanipulator systems

Multimanipulator systems demand extra levels of task planning in order to derive the maximum benefits of using such equipment. The paper examines the use of transputers to control and plan the movement of both commercial and prototype manipulators. Transputers are a natural selection because of the ease of data transfer, high and low level control functions through Occam and obviously parallel processing to perform the many separate tasks quickly. The database holding collision and working environment information must be small and capable of being searched efficiently. Constraints on the manipulator define how the system can respond to avoid collisions, using time priority of movement, or following smooth paths when carrying liquid, for example