On-Board Controller for Articulated Arm Dynamic Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional industrial robotic systems operate with slow signal sampling and require all sensors to be wired to a central control cabinet, leading to inefficiencies and limitations in dynamic control and responsiveness to environmental conditions.
Innovation Solution
An articulated arm system with an on-board controller that senses the position, movement, or acceleration of the articulated arm and provides a motion signal to directly control the arm, allowing for dynamic control and responsiveness without relying on slow polling of sensors.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If traditional top-down control architecture with centralized polling is used, then all control logic is consolidated in one place, but signal sampling speed is slow and system responsiveness is poor
Solution Approach 1:
The control system is segmented into multiple independent controllers distributed across different components (robotic arm, end effector, sensors). Each controller operates autonomously with its own control logic, eliminating the single-point polling bottleneck and enabling parallel signal processing and faster system-wide responsiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The control architecture transitions from a single-dimensional centralized hierarchy to a multi-dimensional distributed network. Control logic is no longer confined to one central controller but is distributed across multiple spatial and functional dimensions, allowing simultaneous local decision-making and global coordination.
2Loss of information
If all sensors are wired to the central control cabinet, then all sensor data can be accessed centrally, but long cable runs are required and error rates increase
Solution Approach 1:
Control intelligence is extracted from the central control cabinet and embedded directly into distributed components (end effector controllers, sensor interfaces). This eliminates the need for all sensors to be wired back to a central location, reducing cable length and potential failure points while maintaining full data accessibility through local processing and selective communication.
Solution Approach 2:
Local controllers act as intermediaries between sensors and the central system. These intermediaries process sensor data locally and communicate only essential information to other system components, reducing the need for direct long-distance wiring from every sensor to the control cabinet while ensuring data integrity and accessibility.
3Device complexity
If centralized control polling is used, then system architecture is simple, but the system cannot respond dynamically to unexpected conditions and loads
Solution Approach 1:
The control system transitions from a static centralized polling architecture to a dynamic distributed architecture where each controller can independently respond to local conditions in real-time. This enables the system to adapt dynamically to unexpected conditions and loads while maintaining relatively simple individual controller designs, achieving complexity at the component level for simplicity at the system level.
Data Source
AI summary
An articulated arm system is disclosed that includes an articulated arm including an end effector, and a robotic arm control systems including at least one sensor for sensing at least one of the position, movement or acceleration of the articulated arm, and a main controller for providing computational control of the articulated arm, and an on-board controller for providing, responsive to the at least one sensor, a motion signal that directly controls at least a portion of the articulated arm.