Motion control with process abstraction

Abstract

Abstract control processes are introduced as a means of achieving robust device-independent control of articulated objects. The goal is to relax the binding between abstract motion constraints and physical actuators. The motion of a control process that encapsulates an abstract constraint on an articulated body is introduced. Logically independent constraints are represented by separate, concurrently executing processes. Embedded in the definition of a process is a specification of the resources needed to accomplish its goals. A process manager distributes resources (e.g. actuators) to active processes. The specific set of actuators controlled by a process may change from moment to moment as other processes are activated and deactivated. As an illustration of this technique, a method for balancing a multilinked figure in the Newton simulation system is presented.<>