Highly efficient transputer arrays for the computation of robot dynamics

Abstract

Abstract The modelling of the highly coupled and non‐linear dynamic models of robot manipulators is computationally expensive in terms of computer hardware. Hence this problem has always presented a major obstacle in on‐line dynamic control applications. However, the recent advent of the VLSI single on‐chip computer (Transputer) makes it possible to implement new algorithms that compute these dynamic models within real‐time constraints. This paper describes a solution of this problem by employing a parallel‐processing approach. The dynamic model of a robot manipulator is divided into different tasks. Further, each task is divided into several subtasks. A heuristic scheduling algorithm is used to produce different near‐optimum task allocations. Real‐time implementations of the proposed tasks allocations are given to demonstrate the efficiency and superiority of the parallel‐processing approach.