Robot Manipulator Control under Unix RCCL: A Robot Control "C" Library

Abstract

In this paper, we present a general purpose manipulator control system. The system is run under the Unix operating system. Manipulator programs are written in the "C" lan guage and make use of primitive functions included in a library. Manipulator control is thus integrated within the lan guage in the same manner as is input-output. The system includes a world modeler and a trajectory generator that are accessed through two sets of primitive functions. The sys tem's structured world modeler is designed for an easy inte gration of sensors. The first part of the paper reviews the functional organization of the system, going through world modeling, trajectory generation, force control, and synchroni zation. The second part describes actual robot programming examples.