Transputers for robotic control

The functions of a robot controller can consist of planning, organisation, coordination and decision making at the top of control hierarchy and, joint angle control at the bottom end. The computational needs for processing of the external data and implementation of complex control strategies for tasks involving precision path following at high speeds, high band-width compliance and adaptive control, are quite intensive. Partition of the computational tasks between various independent processors, which can operate in parallel and communicate with each other when necessary, can help alleviate the burden and allow real-time implementation of a desired control algorithm. The Transputer, being general purpose, capable of high speed processing with extensive capabilities is a relatively low cost processor which suitably fulfils the robot control computational requirements stated above