Tag: industrial robot controller
Hardware setup for RCCL test: EtherCAT digital IO modules + servo drives
Hardware and software platforms for an industrial robot controller
Hardware and Software Platforms for Industrial Robot Controllers
Aug. 2008
Gyoung Hwan Kim. Ph.D.
gyounghkim@open-robotics.com
Questions
- State-of-art robot controllers ?
- Design concept ?
- Internals of robot controllers?
- Next robot controller ?
Robot Programming
- AL: Stanford Univ., 1981
- VAL: Unimation, 1980
- PAL: Purdue Univ., 1981
- “Robot Manipulators”, R. P. Paul, 1981
- RCCL: Purdue Univ., 1983
- Multi-RCCL: JPL, McGill Univ., 1990
⇒ Dead research areaNote that Samsung’s robot language is based on VAL.
Robot Control
- Kinematics-based control: independent joint control
- Dynamics-based control: ~1990
- Direct drive arms
- Flexible robot control
⇒ Matured research area
State-of-art Robot Controller ?
Robot Controller Developed
Robot Controller developed for SCARA and transfer robots
Design Concept ?
Internals of Robot Controllers ?
Robot Controller Structure
Servo Controller Structures
- Type 1. Drive interface board + 1-axis drives
- Type 2. Servo board + “IPM + DC-link”s
- Type 3. Servo board + IPMs + DC-link
Note that 1-axis drive = servo processor + IPM + DC-link circuit.
Type 1. Servo Controller
- High-power applications.
- Conventional control scheme.
- Commercial 1-axis drives.
Type 1 Drive Interface Board
(developed and tested)
- TI TMS320F2812 DSP for linear interpolation.
- FPGA for binary rate multiplication and encoder pulse counters.
- 6 channel incremental encoder inputs (electrically isolated).
- 6 channel pulse outs for 1-axis drives (electrically isolated).
Type 2. Servo Controller
- High-power applications.
- Flexible control schemes.
Type 3. Servo Controller
- Low-power applications.
- Flexible control schemes.
Type 3 Servo Board
- The most powerful , flexible and advanced servo controller used in commercial industrial robot controllers.
- Software –only implementation of position, velocity, and current control.
- 1KHz current loop and 0.5 kHz position and control loop.
- DSP load is less than 30%.
Type 3 IPM
(Intelligent Power Module)
Type 3 DC-Link Circuit
Robot Controller Structure
Main Processor Board
- Hardware: X86 motherboard + PCI boards
- Software: Real-time Linux (RTAI)
CPU Board
(off-the-shelf product)
- Compact size and low power consumption: Mini-ITX board with an 1GHz VIA CPU.
- 3 PCI board using a riser card.
Riser Card for 3 PCI Slots
PCI Boards
- High speed 4-port serial board: two RS232 ports and two RS422 ports.
- CC-link PCI board: TI TMS320C2812 DSP with a dual-port memory.
- RTAI RTDM drive driver for the serial board and Linux device driver for the CC-link board are also developed.
Four-port Serial PCI Board
CC-Link PCI Board
Profibus PCI Board
Parallel I/O board
- Intelligent parallel I/O board – TI TMS320F2812 DSP.
- Electrically isolated 24 inputs and 24 outputs.
Main-to-Servo Interface
- Main processor to servo controller interface:
– electrically isolated.
– high-speed (2.5M bps) serial interface – RS422.
Tested Configurations
- One SCARA robot + one X-Y robot.
- Three X-Y robots.
- One transfer robot with one driving axis.
SCARA + X-Y robots
LCD Transfer Robot with a Driving Axis
Next Robot Controllers ?
- For larger robots, a drive interface board is developed.
- If needed, RCCL can be used.
Conclusion
- A flexible robot controller is developed and tested with SCARA robots and transfer robots.
My robotics textbook says nothing about industrial robot controllers. Why ?
Textbooks are only for teaching. You want too much from texbooks.
Mostly the authors have no experience of desiging industrial robot controllers. Period.