Self Management in a Control Architecture for Parallel Kinematic Robots

Maintainability, extendibility and reusability of components in the design of robot control architectures is a major challenge. Parallel kinematic robots feature a wide variety of structures and applications. They are subject to easy reconfiguration because of the passive structure limbs. This class of robots requires more extensive calculations in their control laws than serial manipulators. During complex motion tasks, such as the ones required in assembly sequences, the algorithmic load may also vary over time. However, no generic control approach exists in order to reduce the complexity of control design for these kind of robots. In this paper the authors introduce an architecture for handling and assembly applications featuring self-management techniques as an approach to tackle these problems. The existing architecture features a modular and layered design. Concepts of self-management and self-optimization applied to this architecture are outlined. These properties are realized by the integration of self-managers within crucial system components. The mechanisms are extended for a future distributed version of the architecture. Real-time properties are guaranteed by an online formal analysis that verifies planned adaptations before realizing them.