Authors:
Steffen Schütz
;
Atabak Nejadfard
;
Max Reichardt
and
Karsten Berns
Affiliation:
Robotics Research Lab, Department of Computer Science, TU Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern and Germany
Keyword(s):
Embedded Systems, Distributed Control, Compliant Actuation, Series Elastic Actuator, Bipedal Walking.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Computer and Microprocessor-Based Control
;
Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics
;
Real-Time Systems Control
;
Robot Design, Development and Control
;
Robotics and Automation
;
Signal Processing, Sensors, Systems Modeling and Control
Abstract:
The embedded system that is distributed within a bipedal robot is a key component of such a highly interwoven mechatronic system. Generally, it has to handle two competing main tasks – executing the embedded closed-loop control of the actuators and handling the communication with the higher-level control system. As the restrictions on physical size and energy consumption limit its computational resources, the design of the embedded nodes poses a potential bottleneck for the performance of the overall system. Hence, the following presents an approach to mitigate the conflicting requirements by deploying FPGA-based embedded nodes. It is illustrated how the additional flexibility at the logic level is used to implement the closed-loop force and impedance control of a series elastic actuator. Furthermore, it is shown how the consequent hardware/software co-design enables the deployment of a full featured robotic framework. To validate the concept, the properties of the implementation are
characterized.
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