An Advanced Robot Control System Using a DSP-Based Vector Computation Engine

In this paper, explanations for the configuration and usage of a vector computation engine designed to meet the growing demand for higher-speed operation, more precise robotics and real-time motion simulation are given. Presented is an example of its application to a robot controller making full use of high operational performance. This engine is a floating-point vector processor based on a single-chip digital signal processor (μPD77230) with vector matrix and various functions such as a trigonometrical function, data transfer functions-- being built into an internal instruction memory. In this engine, a multiplication of 4 × 4 element transformation matrices can be done in less than 30pseconds. Active stiffness control operation (involving force control in addition to position control) in less than 0.7 milliseconds. In other words, this single-chip engine makes it possible to achieve high-level control comparable to a minicomputer, thus providing a compact, light and inexpensive robot controller.