Hierarchical Control of Complex Robot Handling Situations

Summary

The paper outlines a control strategy aimed at facilitating communications between sensors and the robot controller. Adaptive force control of a servo-driven end-effector will be used as an example of a real-time application. The overall control method is based on the National Bureau of Standards (U.S.A.) Hierarchical Robot Control System modified by the current researchers to allow real-time adaptive gripping. The hardware design configuration uses a multiprocessor format communicating on a common memory ‘first-come first-served’ approach. The control software is based on a state-table implementation which allows for easy expansion to take into account new operating conditions or addition of extra sensors/levels.