Presents the results of applying a component-based control software architecture to robotic workcell applications. Robotic workcells are introduced, the underlying technology is discussed, and an overview of the software architecture is presented. Next, the results and experiences of applying the architecture to seven industrial applications are described in detail. As the results indicate, software reuse levels in excess of 90% are achieved. The paper concludes with a summary and discussion of future work.

Kinematically redundant manipulators are inherently capable of more dextrous manipulation due to their additional degrees of freedom. To achieve this dexterity, however, one must be able to efficiently calculate the most desirable configuration from the infinite number of possible configurations that satisfy the end-effector constraint. It has been previously shown that the singular value decomposition (SVD) plays a crucial role in doing such calculations. In this work, a parallel algorithm for calculating the SVD is incorporated into a computational scheme for solving the equations of motion for kinematically redundant systems. This algorithm, which generalizes the damped least squares formulation to include solutions that utilize null-space projections and task prioritization as well as augmented or extended Jacobians, is then implemented on a simple linear array of processing elements. By taking advantage of the error bounds on the perturbation of the SVD, it is shown that an array of only four AT&T DSP chips can result in control cycle times of less than 3 ms for a seven degree-of-freedom manipulator.>

The authors present a parallel algorithm for solving the equations of motion for kinematically redundant robotic systems. This algorithm, which relies on the calculation of the singular value decomposition (SVD), is implemented on a simple linear array of processing elements. By taking advantage of the error bounds on the perturbation of the SVD, it is shown that an array of only four AT&T DSP (digital signal processor) chips can result in control cycle times of less than 3 ms for a seven degree-of-freedom manipulator.>