ADVANCED MOTION CONTROL OF MECHATRONIC SYSTEMS VIA A HIGH-SPEED DSP AND A PARALLEL-PROCESSING TRANSPUTER NETWORK

A system for implementing an advanced motion controller using a floati ng-point digital signal processor (DSP) and a transputer-based paralle l processing system is presented. The discussion includes a brief look at the advantages of using DSPs in real-time control applications and the architecture for integrating DSPs with parallel processing transp uter networks to enhance computing power. The main focus of this paper is on the design of a system that combines the Texas Instruments TMS3 20C30 floating-point DSP with a parallel processing system based on In tel i860 RISC processors and Inmos transputers to achieve excellent re al-time response and superior computational power. The software of the system is hosted in the popular MATLAB program which furnishes a simp le user interface and programming environment. The system is ideal for implementing advanced motion control experiments that require high-sp eed floating-point computations as well as fast sampling rates. In add ition to real-time experiment, the system also includes a simulation p ackage to allow rapid verification of the user's program and control a lgorithm. A complex adaptive motor control experiment is presented to illustrate the application of the system.