Retrofitting Industrial Manipulators for Study of Open Architecture Integration of Mechatronic Systems

We have developed a plug-and-play open architecture C^H language environment for integration of mechatronic systems for network-based agile manufacturing (Cheng, 1993). For experimental verification of this language environment in real-time applications, the original controllers of two popular industrial robot manipulators Puma 560 and IBM 7575 have been completely retrofitted and integrated with a conveyer system to form a robot workcell. This robot workcell, bypassing their original controllers, can be programmed to run under the C^H language environment. Details about retrofitting these two industrial manipulators with new servo control boards, A/D boards, and I/O boards running the C^H language environment under a commercial real-time operating system will be described. The C^H language environment is designed for open architecture integration of mechatronic systems. The user application program written in C^H is computer platform independent, mechatronic device independent, and mechatronic system independent. A sample C^H application program for simulated assembly operations of this robot workcell will be presented to demonstrate the underlying principles of open architecture integration of mechatronic systems under the programming paradigm of the C^H language environment.