OROCOS-based generic control system for a 6 DOF industrial manipulator

This paper presents the design and implementation of a PC-based control application retrofitted to an existing industrial manipulator. The system uses the OROCOS component-based framework for real-time functionality as well as its infrastructure for software component interaction. This together with the use some of the provided libraries and built-in development tools allowed for a rapid development approach. Direct addressing of a PCI-based I/O card peripheral hardware is described and proposed as a solution to the perennial challenge of hardware I/O in Linux partly occasioned by a lack of support for device drivers. The result is a fully functional control application that provides standard manipulator functionality as well as on-board analysis tools and capacity for sensor-based extended functionality. Moreover the resulting scheme is based on generic hardware that is available commercially off-the-shelf and can thus be replicated in its entirety.