Hardware interface configuration for motion control of the PUMA-560 and the Mitsubishi RM-501 robots

Both the Mitsubishi RM-501 and the PUMA-560 robot manipulator control hardware structures have been sufficiently modified to facilitate manipulator motion control research. In the case of the RM-501, the Movemaster Controller was completely replaced by hardware based on the driver-sensor interface bus (DISBus). For the PUMA system, it was desired to use as much of the MARK II controller as possible. The resulting system utilized the motor drivers of the MARK II controller with the DISBus for positioning encoding of the joint quadrature signals. Both of the modified systems have been tested. The modified Mitsubishi system was used to perform successful studies in adaptive manipulator motion control. The modified PUMA system was used by International Submarine Engineering in tests with the Control System Probe