UPE: Utah Prototyping Environment For Robot Manipulators

We do not have a preprint copy of this article to post so please request it through inter-library loan from your home library or use the link below to obtain a final published copy from Springer.Developing an environment that enables optimal and flexible design of robot manipulators using reconfigurable links, joints, actuators, and sensors is an essential step for efficient robot design and prototyping. Such an environment should have the right "mix" of software and hardware components for designing the physical parts and the controllers, and for the algorithmic control of the robot modules (kinematics, inverse kinematics, dynamics, trajectory planning, analog control and digital computer control). Specifying object-based communications and catalog mechanisms between the software modules, controllers, physical parts, CAD designs, and actuator and sensor components is a necessary step in the prototyping activities. In this paper, we propose a flexible prototyping environment for robot manipulators with the required subsystems and interfaces between the different components of this environment. This environment provides a close tie between the design parameters of the robot manipulator and the design constraints imposed by the required tasks and desired behaviors of the robot and by the different subsystems involved in the design process. The design and implementation of this environment along with the implementation of some of the subsystems are presented, and some examples that demonstrate the functionality of the environment are discussed. This work was supported in part by DARPA agent N00014-91-J-4123, NSF grant CDA 9024721, and a University of Utah Research Committee grant. All opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this document are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the sponsoring agencies.http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF0043571