Reconfigurable distributed real-time processing for multi-robot control: Design, implementation and experimentation

Abstract

Sophisticated robotic applications require systems to be reconfigurable at the system level. Aiming at this requirement, this paper presents the design and implementation of a software architecture for a reconfigurable real-time multi-processing system for multi-robot control. The system is partitioned into loosely coupled function units and the data modules manipulated by the function units. Modularized and unified structures of the sub-controllers and controller processes are designed and constructed. All the controller processes run autonomously and intra-sub-controller information exchange is realized by shared data modules that serve as a data repository in the sub-controller. The dynamic data-management processes are responsible for data exchange among sub-controllers and across the computer network. Among sub-controllers there is no explicit temporal synchronization and the data dependencies are maintained by using datum-based synchronization. The hardware driver is constructed as a two-layered system to facilitate adaptation to various robotic hardware systems. A series of effective schemes for software fault detection, fault anticipation and fault termination are accomplished to improve run-time safety. The system is implemented cost-effectively on a QNX real-time operating system (RTOS) based system with a complete PC architecture, and experimentally validated successfully on an experimental dual-arm test-bed. The results indicate that the architectural design and implementation are well suited for advanced application tasks.

Agent Control for Reconfigurable Open Kinematic Chain Manipulators

“…The task is: with initial end-effector position �20 0 0� � �0 � ��� and linear velocity 0. Experiments vary in terms of the number of subpoints (3,6,12) added to the original motion task. Subpoints helped the agent kinematic algorithms converge to target points (Figure 8).…”

“…Several authors have proposed solutions to the issues of reconfigurable manipulators. For Pan et al [3], a viable solution was a distributed control environment for which they present the software architecture design and system implementation of a reconfigurable system for real-time multiple robot control. The system is partitioned into autonomous functional units and data modules manipulated by the units.…”