Object-oriented techniques in robot manipulator control software development

Abstract

Software development for the control of robotic manipulators is a complex task because it requires expertise in many areas (e.g., robotics, real-time programming, hardware integration, concurrency, etc.). Because of this fact, it is difficult to develop a common software platform supporting the diversity of robotic research areas and robotic hardware. Even though a large number of robotic languages, libraries, and tools have been created, they are seldom reused. That is, many research teams develop their own software platform from scratch because existing platforms are too inflexible with regard to modifications and too complex to understand. The authors of this paper believe that code reuse is fostered by providing a lightweight platform rather than requiring the user to modify a complex system. Along this line of reasoning, this paper describes the QMotor Robotic Toolkit (QMotor RTK). The RTK is a set of C++ libraries and programs that follow object-oriented concepts to ensure code reuse, modularity, scalability, and an intuitive code structure. The RTK is a homogeneous system that consists only of PC software. The RTK includes joint level control programs for the Puma 560 manipulator, the Barren Whole Arm Manipulator (WAM), and the Integrated Motion Inc. (IMI) two-link manipulator as well as a joint level trajectory generator and a graphical user interface (GUI).