Abstract
In this paper we present two different, software and reconfigurable hardware, open architecture approaches to the PUMA 560 robot controller implementation, fully document them and provide the full design specification, software code and hardware description. Such solutions are necessary in today’s robotics and industry: deprecated old control units render robotic installations useless and allow no upgrades, advancements, or innovation in an inherently innovative ecosystem. For the sake of simplicity, just the first robot axis is considered. The first approach described is a PC solution with data acquisition I/O board (Humusoft MF634). This board is supported with Matlab Real-Time Windows Toolbox for real-time applications and thus whole controller was designed in Matlab environment. The second approach is a robot controller developed on field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) board. The complexity of FPGA design can be overcome by using a third party software package, such as self-developed Matlab FPGA Real Time Toolbox. In both cases, parameters of motion controller are calculated by using simulation of the PUMA 560 robot first axis motion. Simulations were conducted in Matlab/Simulink using Robotics Toolbox.
Highlights
The PUMA 560 robot made significant impact in the robotics era, and has been widely accepted in many fields of industry
While more advanced robots found their application in industry in recent times, PUMA 560 found its new purpose in education, partially due to the fact that it is the mathematically best described robot
The experiment conducted in this paper had the goal of verifying the controllers we proposed, and the same task was put front of all three schemes: the simulation, PC, and field programmable gate arrays (FPGA) control
Summary
The PUMA 560 robot made significant impact in the robotics era, and has been widely accepted in many fields of industry. While more advanced robots found their application in industry in recent times, PUMA 560 found its new purpose in education, partially due to the fact that it is the mathematically best described robot. Its simple structure enables development of new controllers and testing of the new controlling algorithms for education and scientific purposes. Nowadays there are many manufacturers in the market, but the produced robots use controllers which are not open for research and education purposes. In education process organized for students it is important to have the possibility to measure different values (position, error, torque etc.) from control algorithms utilized on controller in real time and compare them with results from other simulations as well as textbooks. New controlling approaches, as well as controllers for the PUMA 560 robot have been developed at institutes and universities worldwide
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