Rapid Prototyping for Mobile Robots Embedded Control Systems

Abstract

One of the main motivations of this work is to propitiate a virtual environment that facilitates development of archetypes of embedded systems, emphasizing implementation of tools that allow the simulation of kinematic, dynamic and control conditions, with real time monitoring of all important points of the system. In this way, the proposal of a virtual simulator of mobile robotic systems is presented together with techniques of rapid prototyping. The use of the rapid prototyping technique in mobile robotic systems differs from the traditional target used in mechanics engineering and enters in a new field of research and development for projects of mobile robots mechatronics systems. In this way, the rapid prototyping of these systems is associated not only with the project of the physical system, but mainly with the experimental implementations in the fields of hardware and software of the robotic system. In the context of this work, the rapid prototyping is the technology that allows, in conjunction with a simulation virtual environment, the development of a mobile robots controller project. After tested and validated in the simulator, the control system is programmed in the control onboard memory of the mobile robot. In this way, a economy of time and material are obtained, validating first all the model virtually for later operating the physical implementation of the system. It is fundamental that the architecture of hardware of the considered system be opened and flexible in the way of effecting the necessary modifications for system optimization. A proposal of open architecture system was presented in Melo et al. (2005) and summarized in this work. The software of the embedded control system of the mobile robot, in the context of the rapid prototyping, can be elaborated in simulators and have all the parameters tested for adjustments that makes necessary in accordance with the physical system to be implemented, the hardware architecture, the actuators and the sensors. In this way, in the context of this work, the rapid prototyping is then the methodology that allows the creation of a virtual environment of simulation for the project of a controller for mobile robots. After being tested and validated in the simulator, the control system is programmed in the control board memory of the mobile robot. In this way, an economy of time and material are obtained, firstly validating all the model virtually and later operating the physical implementation of the system (Dudek & Jekin, 2000). The choice of DSP TMS320C6474 multicore digital signal processor as main onboard manager device falls into two main factors. First, its great information and instructions processing 13