Development of distributed controller software for improving robot performance and reliability

Many types of motor drivers have been developed to meet various mission requirements for robots, but any of them are sufficient so that, new motor drivers are yet to developed. In this paper, the software of a control motor controller called the Netroller is explained, intelligent and distributed motor controller for variable mission requirements. The Netroller drives a motor or any actuator with the pulse width modulation (PWM) mode. The Netroller consists of a microcomputer unit (MPU) and a communication network that interface that can connect the Netroller each other by control area network (CAN) and the Netroller complies reducing harness complexity. The Netroller communicate with a main concentrated computer unit (MCCU). Furthermore the Netroller is very small, so enable to distribute the robot joints. An example is applying the Netroller to the reconfiguration brachiating space robot (RBR) for improving robot performance and reliability.