Implementation of a new PC based controller for a PUMA robot

This paper describes the replacement of a controller for a programmable universal machine for assembly (PUMA) 512 robot with a newly designed PC based (open architecture) controller employing a real-time direct control of six joints. The original structure of the PUMA robot is retained. The hardware of the new controller includes such in-house designed parts as pulse width modulation (PWM) amplifiers, digital and analog controllers, I/O cards, signal conditioner cards, and 16-bit A/D and D/A boards. An Intel Pentium IV industrial computer is used as the central controller. The control software is implemented using VC++ programming language. The trajectory tracking performance of all six joints is tested at varying velocities. Experimental results show that it is feasible to implement the suggested open architecture platform for PUMA 500 series robots through the software routines running on a PC. By assembling controller from off-the-shell hardware and software components, the benefits of reduced and improved robustness have been realized.