Electronics Proposal for Telerobotics Operation of P3-DX Units

Abstract

In this chapter the authors describe a solution for providing a basic commercial robot with the capabilities of being teleoperated. The proposed electronics architecture fits the requirements in terms of sensor processing, control and wireless communications needed in a telerobotic application. From the hardware point of view, the key elements are the motherboard Via-Epia miniITX, and the wireless hardware included in the remote client WHR-HP-G54 and the one mounted on the robot WLI-TX4-G54HP. From the software side, the more relevant feature is the high flexibility which is provided from the synergy between Matlab/Simulink/RTW with the client-server structure of the Player/Stage open software for the implementation of control applications. Together with theoretical descriptions, examples of real telerobotics applications are shown. For that, the ad-hoc configured robotic platform is tested, working in both control modes: local and remote. Properties and drawbacks of using a wireless channel inside a control loop are remarked. In practice, the prototype carried out by authors is being used as a real test bench for telerobotics and control applications, including robot cooperation problems in both educational and research fields.