Model Integrated Computing in Robot Control to Synthesize Real-time Embedded Code
Robert Höpler and Pieter J. Mosterman
Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics
DLR Oberpfaffenhofen
Abstract
Manufacturing robots present a class of embedded systems with hard
real-time constraints. On the one hand controller software has to
satisfy tight timing constraints and rigorous memory requirements.
Especially non-linear dynamics and kinematics models are vital to
modern model-based controllers and trajectory planning algorithms.
Often this is still realized by manually coding and optimizing the
software, a labor intensive and error-prone repetitive process. On
the other hand shorter design-cycles and a growing number of
customer-specific robots demand more flexibility not just in
modeling. This paper presents a model-integrated computing
approach to automated code synthesis of dynamics models that
satisfies the harsh demands by including domain and problem
specific constraints prescribed by the robotics application. It is
shown that the use of such tailored formalisms leads to very
efficient embedded software, competitive with the hand optimized
alternative. At the same time it combines flexibility in model
specification and usage with the potential for dynamic adaptation
and reconfiguration of the model.
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