Open architecture dynamic manipulator design philosophy (DMD)

This paper presents a generic and universal architecture design for robotic manipulators. A flexible approach is taken to develop the design philosophy throughout, resulting in a hardware architecture that is portable, can be integrated and enables the implementation of advanced control methods. A software kernel of management, supervision and control was developed in order to obtain an easy user interface to the robotic researcher. The application of many such controls has, traditionally, often been severely restricted in partial commercial robotic systems because of limitations associated with their controllers; rather than the arms themselves.