In designing and building a robot manipulator, many tasks are required, starting with specifying the tasks and performance requirements, determining the robot configuration and parameters that are most suitable for the required tasks, ordering the parts and assembling the robot, developing the necessary software and hardware components (controller, simulator, monitor), and finally, testing the robot and measuring its performance.
Our goal is to build a framework for optimal and flexible design of robot manipulators with software and hardware systems and modules which are independent of the design parameters and which can be used for different configurations and varying parameters. This environment is composed of several subsystems. Some of these subsystems are:
Each subsystem has its own structure, data representation, and reasoning strategy. On the other hand, much of the information is shared among these subsystems. To maintain the consistency of the whole system, an interface layer is proposed to facilitate the communication between these subsystems, and set the protocols that enable the interaction between the subsystems to take place.
This project involved the interaction and cooperation of several different research groups. The robotics group (Prof. Thomas Henderson, Prof. Tarek Sobh, Prof. Sam Drake and myself), was involved in the design and analysis of the prototype robot, and also the implementation of the necessary software systems for the prototyping environment and for controlling and simulating the three-link robot. The Alpha_1 group, represented by Mircea Cormos was involved in designing the CAD/CAM model for the robot using the Alpha_1 CAGD system. The VLSI group, represented by Prof. Kent Smith and Anil Sabbavarapu, helped in the analysis stage, particularly, in making the decision of using hardware vs. software solutions. Also this group was involved in the design of the communication circuitry between the robot and the workstation. The Center of Software Science (CSS), represented by Prof. Robert Mecklenburg, helped in the design and analysis of the prototyping environment with the required communication protocols and database analysis. The Center of Engineering Design (CED), represented by Prof. Sanford Meek, was involved in selecting the electrical and electronic components and helping out in the overall design and testing procedures for the robot manipulator. Finally, the manufacturing group at the Advanced Manufacturing Lab (AML), represented by Mircea Cormos, the AML manager, Prof. Sam Drake, and Prof. Sanford Meek, was involved in the manufacturing and assembly of the robot. Besides these groups, there was cooperation between the departments of Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering in selecting the required components for the robot. A cataloging system has been recently developed by Prof. Don Brown and Prof. Robert Mecklenburg that automates the selection process for some of the parts, and we would like to incorporate this system with the part-ordering subsystem in the prototyping environment. Figure 1 shows the interaction between these groups during this project.
Figure 1: The interaction between the groups involved in
the prototyping activity.