Microcontroller implementation for distributed motion control of mobile robots

This paper describes the design and implementation of a modular architecture for distributed motion control of mobile robots. The control system has an overall hierarchical structure, and parallel structure in its lower levels. The lower levels are composed of several autonomous modules; each module is equipped with a microprocessor-based controller, and has its own control functions with sensors, actuators, and communication interfaces as an intelligent autonomous sensing and actuating device. Operations of these autonomous modules are integrated through a communication network of serial bus type. Autonomous actuators are basic modules for distributed motion control of a robotic mechanism. For a two degrees of freedom robotic mechanism, a mobile robot with two coaxial independently driving wheels, position and velocity control algorithms to follow a planned path cooperatively are implemented, and the performance of the proposed architecture is experimentally evaluated.