Transputer control and sensing architectures for mobile robots

Abstract

Concerns a project developing an architecture for a mobile factory robot, the GEC Turtle. This vehicle, which measures 0.9*1.2 m with a platform 0.6 m high, is equipped with a variety of sensors including sonar, trinocular stereo and a sophisticated laser range finder. The architecture is to be applicable to certain other vehicles. A distributed transputer architecture is adopted for sensing and control. The transputer provides a powerful on-board facility and adapts easily to a distributed reconfigurable sensing and control strategy. A generic transputer architecture for sensors with local intelligence allows the building of networks of distributed sensors and opens an integrated path for combining the information of disparate sensors. In control, a distributed architecture overcomes the bottlenecks associated with a centralised controller. The use of transputers throughout gives a consistent interface for easy communication and interfacing between the various units in the sensing and control strategy.