Parallel processing of the Newton-Euler equations of robot arm motion on a network of TMS320C25 processors

The development of a real-time advanced dynamic robot arm controller which is cost-effective, compact and flexible is described for a six joint arm. It utilizes IBM PC-AT as a host computer and was configurated with up to seven digital signal processors. First, the controller interprets high-level control commands from the IBM PC-AT and performs a robot arm control computation based on the Newton-Euler equations which are known to be the most efficient algorithm for multiprocessor systems. Implementation of a parallel algorithm of the dynamic control law based on Newton-Euler formulation is proposed on the PARADISE multiprocessor system. The design of hardware and software for the controller is discussed in more detail.