Multi-Microcomputer Robot Control System Using a Special Robot-Arithmetic-Processor for Advanced Applications of Robot Manipulators

The performance of complex and advanced applications of industrial reports requires large computational power. The control system presented in this paper is designed as a multi-microcomputer system. The main purpose of this system is to create a pleasant environment for present and further studies in robotic research. The Advanced Robot Control System (ARC) uses multiple microcomputers based on iAPX 8086 processors. A local bus of each processor allows additional memory and Input/output expansions for increased throughput. Nevertheless, the rising calculation effort for the kinematic and dynamic relations shows the insufficient computing power of standard microprocessors. Therefore a fast floating-point processor has been developed. This Robot Arithmetic Processor (RAP) is built up with bipolar bit-slice components, special arithmetic modules and hardware control mechanisms for on- and off-line diagnostic functions