Control Software Architecture Research Articles

Development of a Trimaran ASV

A trimaran is proposed as an autonomous surface vehicle aimed to oceanographic field missions and research on navigation of autonomous underwater vehicles. The paper presents a discussion comparing this kind of vessel to the monohull and catamaran types. Naval architecture aspects of the vehicle design are summarized, and details on the hardware and software control architecture are presented as well.

Conversion of the SCARA Robot into a Hybrid Manufacturing Workstation

Combination of two or more manufacturing processes in a single machining setup, Hybrid Manufacturing (HM), has attracted more attention in both industry and academia over the last decade. We propose the workstation design, based on recycling and reusing somewhat obsolete industrial equipment. Modification of an existing SCARA type robot into an expandable HM workstation to combine CNC machining and fused filament fabricating into a single setup is explained. The paper explains the process of conversion of the 4-axes SCARA robot and describes implementation of new motors on the existing robot construction, development of new controls by using a modern version control software architecture. The robot was programmed to run using G-code for both additive and subtractive manufacturing processes. The prototype workstation has been built and its operation was tested on a sample hybrid manufacturing task.

Final implementation, commissioning, and performance of embedded collimator beam position monitors in the Large Hadron Collider

During Long Shutdown 1, 18 Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collimators were replaced with a new design, in which beam position monitor (BPM) pick-up buttons are embedded in the collimator jaws. The BPMs provide a direct measurement of the beam orbit at the collimators, and therefore can be used to align the collimators more quickly than using the standard technique which relies on feedback from beam losses. Online orbit measurements also allow for reducing operational margins in the collimation hierarchy placed specifically to cater for unknown orbit drifts, therefore decreasing the ${\ensuremath{\beta}}^{*}$ and increasing the luminosity reach of the LHC. In this paper, the results from the commissioning of the embedded BPMs in the LHC are presented. The data acquisition and control software architectures are reviewed. A comparison with the standard alignment technique is provided, together with a fill-to-fill analysis of the measured orbit in different machine modes, which will also be used to determine suitable beam interlocks for a tighter collimation hierarchy.

Identification model and PI and PID controller design for a novel electric air heater

ABSTRACTIn this article, the software and hardware control architecture for a novel high-temperature three-phase electric air heating furnace is presented. It consists of a multiple-input single-output (MISO) nonlinear plant designed to heat air at flow rates in a range between 10 and 60 Nm3/h, from ambient temperature up to 1000 °C.A divide-and-conquer (D&C) approach is applied. It consists in discretizing the air flow rates and working temperatures in intervals where the system behaviour is considered as single-input single-output (SISO) linear plant. Process identification techniques have been used to obtain empiric models for different operation ranges of the electric furnace. The controller parameters have been calculated using the Ziegler–Nichols tuning method.The resulting output air temperature control is composed of a set of 12 PI and PID controllers. The switch among controllers as a function of air flow rates and temperatures is carried out using programming logic and gain scheduling technique, respectively. The resulting multiple controller has been tested under real conditions and the results are presented and discussed.

Walk-through Programming for Industrial Applications

Collaboration between humans and robots is increasingly desired in several application domains, including the manufacturing domain. The paper describes a software control architecture for industrial robotic applications allowing human-robot cooperation during the programming phase of a robotic task. The control architecture is based on admittance control and tool dynamics compensation for implementing walk-through programming and manual guidance. Further steps to integrate this system on a real set-up include the robot kinematics and a socket communication that sends a binary file to the robot.

Increasing flexibility of modular automated material flow systems: A meta model architecture

The demand for flexibility and robustness in case of extending, reducing or modifying parts of an automated material flow system (aMFS) is increasing. Therefore the control software architecture of present aMFS has to be dynamically adaptable. Several approaches propose an encapsulation and clustering of related functions to accomplish the changed requirements. Hence, a modular architecture, which enables changes in the plant design with minimized engineering and commissioning effort is desired. This contribution presents a meta model for an aMFS module including standardized interfaces that enables code generation for central and decentral control structures of aMFS consisting of connected modules.

Study of Control Strategy and Software Architecture Based on Flat Type Small Parts Assembly

For different sizes of flat type small parts assembly problems, the assembly control strategy and software architecture are analyzed and machine vision is introduced into the micro-assembly work. Proposeing "Look and move + Visual servo" micro-assembly control mode, adopted by the interfacial layer, data layer and logic layer composed of layered software architecture, we designed a vision-based vacuum adsorption micro-assembly platform, and it can achieve different sizes of small parts precision assembly. The real-time of software and framework class inheritance, using object-oriented applications programming methods and integrate Halcon vision algorithm library is analyzed, eventually the process control system design is completed. By five flat type small parts consisting of micro components, a series of eight assembly experiment and precision measurements of its key indicators are conducted, It is shown that:The error of micro component concentricity and parallelism basically meet the accuracy requirements of assembly. The proposed control method can effectively for other micro-assembly system, and has a good real-time performance, reusability and human-computer interaction.

Design of controller for mobile robot in welding process of shipbuilding engineering

Abstract The present study describes the development of control hardware and software for a mobile welding robot. This robot is able to move and perform welding tasks in a double hull structure. The control hardware consists of a main controller and a welding machine controller. Control software consists of four layers. Each layer consists of modules. Suitable combinations of modules enable the control software to perform the required tasks. Control software is developed using C programming under QNX operating system. For the modularizing architecture of control software, we designed control software with four layers: Task Manager, Task Planner, Actions for Task, and Task Executer. The embedded controller and control software was applied to the mobile welding robot for successful execution of the required tasks. For evaluate this imbedded controller and control software, the field tests are conducted, it is confirmed that the developed imbedded controller of mobile welding robot for shipyard is well designed and implemented.

Development and experimental evaluation of multi-fingered robot hand with adaptive impedance control for unknown environment grasping

SUMMARYThis paper presents adaptive impedance controllers with adaptive sliding mode friction compensation for anthropomorphic artificial hand. A five-fingered anthropomorphic artificial hand with multi-sensory and Field-Programmable Gate Arra (FPGA)-based control hardware and software architecture is designed to fulfill the requirements of the grasping force controller. In order to improve the force-tracking precision, the indirect adaptive algorithm was applied to estimate the parameters of the environment. The generalized momentum-based disturbance observer was applied to estimate the contact force from the torque sensor. Based on the sensors of the finger, an adaptive sliding mode friction compensation algorithm was utilized to improve the accuracy of the position control. The performances of the force-tracking impedance controller and position-based joint impedance control for the five-fingered anthropomorphic artificial hand are analyzed and compared in this paper. Furthermore, the performances of the force-tracking impedance controller with environmental parameters adaptive estimation and without environmental parameters estimation are analyzed and compared. Experimental results prove that accurate force-tracking and stable torque/force response under uncertain environments of unknown stiffness and position can be achieved with the proposed adaptive force-tracking impedance controller with friction compensation on five-finger artificial hand.

Research on Reconfigurable Method of Open CNC System Software Based on Linux

For the development requirements of high-performance, open CNC system. A reconfigurable and modular upper control software architecture of open CNC system is proposed based on PC+I/O card architecture and Linux software platform. Through this architecture users can quickly customize and develop the required CNC software. Structure model of module with three different levels and each module interfaces are mentioned. Basic consist of upper control software which is achieved by these structure model are introduced. Upper control software modules and communication mechanisms are described. Upper control software of the architecture is achieved on Linux operating system, and the simulation results is given.

Design of Control System of PMSM Based on STM32

This paper designs a permanent magnet synchronous motor controller based on STM32. The space vector control algorithm is introduced. The space vector control algorithm and SVPWM are realized based on STM32. The speed and current loop PID regulator can make the accurate control of permanent magnet synchronous motor. This paper presents the hardware and software design of the control system and software architecture. The result shows that the controller design is feasible and it can be widely applied to various CNS.

An open embedded industrial robot hardware and software architecture applied to position control and visual servoing application

This paper presents an open embedded hardware and software architecture for industrial robot control applied to visual servoing system. This architecture is a hardware and software co-design where embedded processors drive the FPGA for motor control. It is robot type independent, as long as the motors are equipped with incremental position encoders and driven by PWM signals. Low cost, low power consumption, high stability, flexibility and expandability are the key advantages. The architecture and related IP cores are developed through a component-based design model which interprets a mechatronic system by computation, communication, configuration and coordination components, together with composition of these components and blackboxes. The motor controller IP core is provided in the consistency of open hardware. Open software implies the use of OROCOS (Bruyninckx, 2001). The performance of visual servoing behaviour is evaluated by visual coupling of a Performer MK2 robot and a KUKA lightweight robot.

CAVIS: a Control software Architecture for cooperative multi-unmanned aerial VehIcle-manipulator Systems

In this paper a Control software Architecture for Cooperative multiple unmanned aerial VehIcle-manipulator Systems (CAVIS) is presented. The core of the architecture is a set of software components, communicating each other through a set of defined messages. To handle multiple control objectives simultaneously, a library of elementary behaviors is defined; then, multiple elementary behaviors are combined, in a given priority order, into tasks (compound behaviors); to this aim the Null-Space-based Behavioral (NSB) approach has been adopted. An application example, involving a cooperative transportation of a bar by two aerial vehicle-manipulator systems, is developed to assess the performance of the proposed architecture.

The Architecture of Robotics Control Software for Heterogeneous Mobile Robots Network

This paper dwells on the control software architecture of mobile robots from a programmer's perspective. Several approaches to the construction of such systems were considered in the case of popular systems and the author's own designs.The need for such systems has even become increasingly obvious due to the heterogeneous nature of robotics network. The authors had to work with different types of robots, namely Sensorika AMUR 1-7, Brokk-400 and Festo Robotino XT. Here, heterogeneity refers not only to the network architecture but also to the robots themselves. Particular attention was given to programming theory, organization of a two-level control instruction pipeline, using Turing-complete protocols, and virtualization of input/output ports.

Hardware and Software Architecture for Nonlinear Control of Multirotor Helicopters

This paper presents the design and implementation of a nonlinear control scheme for multirotor helicopters that takes first-order drag effects into account explicitly. A dynamic model including the blade flapping and induced drag forces is provided and a hierarchical nonlinear controller is presented. This controller is designed for both high-precision flights as well as robustness against model uncertainties and external disturbances. This is achieved by using saturated integrators with fast desaturation properties. The implementation of the controller on the flybox hexacopter platform is described. The hardware and software architecture of this UAV is discussed, and useful hints and insights gained during its design process are presented. Finally, experimental results and videos are reported to demonstrate the successful implementation and the performance of the overall system.

The enhanced ASDEX Upgrade pellet centrifuge launcher

Pellets played an important role in the program of ASDEX Upgrade serving both for investigations on efficient particle fuelling and high density scenarios but also for pioneering work on Edge Localised Mode (ELM) pacing and mitigation. Initially designed for launching fuelling pellets from the magnetic low field side, the system was converted already some time ago to inject pellets from the magnetic high field side as much higher fuelling efficiency was found using this configuration. In operation for more than 20 years, the pellet launching system had to undergo a major revision and upgrading, in particular of its control system. Furthermore, the control system installed adjacent to the launcher had to be transferred to a more distant location enforcing a complete galvanic separation from torus potential and a fully remote control solution. Changing from a hybrid system consisting of PLC S5/S7 and some hard wired relay control to a state of the art PLC system allowed the introduction of several new operational options enabling more flexibility in the pellet experiments. This article describes the new system architecture of control hardware and software, the operating procedure, and the extended operational window. First successful applications for ELM pacing and triggering studies are presented as well as utilization for the development of high density scenarios.

Reconfigurable Integrated Multirobot Exploration System (RIMRES): Heterogeneous Modular Reconfigurable Robots for Space Exploration

This paper presents the multirobot team RIMRES (Reconfigurable Integrated Multirobot Exploration System), which is comprised of a wheeled rover, a legged scout, and several immobile payload items. The heterogeneous systems are employed to demonstrate the feasibility of reconfigurable and modular systems for lunar polar crater exploration missions. All systems have been designed with a common electromechanical interface, allowing to tightly interconnect all these systems to a single system and also to form new electromechanical units. With the different strengths of the respective subsystems, a robust and flexible overall multirobot system is built up to tackle the, to some extent, contradictory requirements for an exploration mission in a crater environment. In RIMRES, the capability for reconfiguration is explicitly taken into account in the design phase of the system, leading to a high degree of flexibility for restructuring the overall multirobot system. To enable the systems' capabilities, the same distributed control software architecture is applied to rover, scout, and payload items, allowing for semiautonomous cooperative actions as well as full manual control by a mission operator. For validation purposes, the authors present the results of two critical parts of the aspired mission, the deployment of a payload and the autonomous docking procedure between the legged scout robot and the wheeled rover. This allows us to illustrate the feasibility of complex, cooperative, and autonomous reconfiguration maneuvers with the developed reconfigurable team of robots.

Design and validation of an intelligent wheelchair towards a clinically-functional outcome

BackgroundMany people with mobility impairments, who require the use of powered wheelchairs, have difficulty completing basic maneuvering tasks during their activities of daily living (ADL). In order to provide assistance to this population, robotic and intelligent system technologies have been used to design an intelligent powered wheelchair (IPW). This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the design and validation of the IPW.MethodsThe main contributions of this work are three-fold. First, we present a software architecture for robot navigation and control in constrained spaces. Second, we describe a decision-theoretic approach for achieving robust speech-based control of the intelligent wheelchair. Third, we present an evaluation protocol motivated by a meaningful clinical outcome, in the form of the Robotic Wheelchair Skills Test (RWST). This allows us to perform a thorough characterization of the performance and safety of the system, involving 17 test subjects (8 non-PW users, 9 regular PW users), 32 complete RWST sessions, 25 total hours of testing, and 9 kilometers of total running distance.ResultsUser tests with the RWST show that the navigation architecture reduced collisions by more than 60% compared to other recent intelligent wheelchair platforms. On the tasks of the RWST, we measured an average decrease of 4% in performance score and 3% in safety score (not statistically significant), compared to the scores obtained with conventional driving model. This analysis was performed with regular users that had over 6 years of wheelchair driving experience, compared to approximately one half-hour of training with the autonomous mode.ConclusionsThe platform tested in these experiments is among the most experimentally validated robotic wheelchairs in realistic contexts. The results establish that proficient powered wheelchair users can achieve the same level of performance with the intelligent command mode, as with the conventional command mode.

Software architecture for control and data acquisition of linear plasma generator Magnum-PSI

The FOM Institute DIFFER – Dutch Institute for Fundamental Energy Research has completed the construction phase of Magnum-PSI, a magnetized, steady-state, large area, high-flux linear plasma beam generator to study plasma surface interactions under ITER divertor conditions. Magnum-PSI consists of several hardware subsystems, and a variety of diagnostic systems. The COntrol, Data Acquisition and Communication (CODAC) system integrates these subsystems and provides a complete interface for the Magnum-PSI users. Integrating it all, from the lowest hardware level of sensors and actuators, via the level of networked PLCs and computer systems, up to functions and classes in programming languages, demands a sound and modular software architecture, which is extendable and scalable for future changes. This paper describes this architecture, and the modular design of the software subsystems. The design is implemented in the CODAC system at the level of services and subsystems (the overall software architecture), as well as internally in the software subsystems.

차량용 전자제어시스템을 위한 AUTOSAR 대응 경량화 소프트웨어 아키텍처 연구

This paper presents AUTOSAR-ready light software architecture (AUTOSAR-Lite), which is a light weighted version of the AUTOSAR, for automotive embedded control systems. The proposed AUTOSAR-Lite reduces overhead problems caused by the excessive standard specifications of AUTOSAR. Concurrently, AUTOSAR-Lite keeps advantages of AUTOSAR such as a scalability, re-usability, reliability, and transferability. The fundamental design of AUTOSAR-Lite is originated from the AUTOSAR standard. AUTOSAR-Lite is composed of three layers such as an application software, runtime environment, and basic software layer. The application software layer adopts component-based design methodology as AUTOSAR. The runtime environment layer integrates interfaces between application and basic software layers. In case of the basic software layer, restrictions of the module configurations and interfaces of basic software are minimized. In order to validate the feasibility of AUTOSAR-Lite, a software design result based on AUTOSAR-Lite software architecture for electronic throttle control (ETC) system is suggested.