Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

November 27, 2008

Switzerland-based Neuronics says it has released a new and open-source Linux version of its Katana Robot Arm.

It runs the Linux operating system with Xenomai real time extensions on a Freescale MPC 5200-based motherboard.

The new robotic arm is targeted at industry, production and R&D applications, says Neuronics.

The Katana Robot Arm is typically used for handling, measurement or testing applications in assembly, production and lab automation, says the company.

The new robot arm is dubbed as a 'smart' industrial tool with safety features that allow it to work directly hand-in-hand with human operators without the need for any additional safeguards, says the company.

The Katana also features the ability to run as an independent stand-alone unit, without requiring an external control server.

The Katana robotic arm's CPU is built on a single-board computer/server equipped with a PowerPC-based Freescale MPC 5200 processor that provides 750 MIPS of performance, says Neuronics.

The robot has six Texas Instruments TMS-320 32 bit motor controllers, one for each axis. Built around a CAN bus architecture, the robot also offers Ethernet and USB ports. The Katana is said to operate in three modes: control, standalone direct and a standalone RPC/Web-services mode that supports technologies such as SOAP and Ajax for critical, Internet-based control functions.

Neuronics' new Linux version of the Katana allows low-level access to the robot's motherboard, and comes with system, communication and motion libraries available as open source packages. Linux access provides full application opportunities that could, up until today, only be met by developing highly expensive custom engineered robotics systems, says the company.

Overall hardware specs for the new Linux Katana Robotic Arm include:

Freescale MPC-5200 CPU

Embedded controllers

Six TI TMS-320 32 bit motor controllers

64 Mb RAM

32 Mb Flash

CAN bus 1 x control bus

1 x sensor bus

External CAN connector

Networking with an Ethernet hub

USB 1 x host and 1 x device

I/O: integrated digital and I/O extension board

Katana's robotic arm software services also include:

Communication server

Standalone mode

CAN open (PDO) driver interface

Control-pad deamon

Fieldbus server

Ajax-based web Interface

Process image server

Eventhandler as web service

Configurable debugging modes

XML-RPC command and control interface

Linux shell interface via web service

SOAP server command and control interface

C++ libraries and Python 2.5 bindings

OS: Linux 2.4.25

Xenomai hard real-time extensions

Driver patches for control board

Denx Linux and Xenomai

The embedded Linux version of Katana runs a 2.4.25 Linux kernel (upgradable to 2.6.22) that is said to be optimized for critical industrial applications and high availability.

The new robot arm has been developed with the Denx Embedded Linux Development Kit (ELDK), an open-source Linux distribution and development tool suite that is especially popular in Europe's industrial Linux community.

The Linux kernel is coupled with the Xenomai pre-emption and scheduling real-time add-on framework for Linux, which is supported by recent versions of ELDK. Xenomai provides "skins" for emulating API requests for different real-time operating systems (RTOSes).

In the Katana implementation, Xenomai provides a development framework that cooperates with the Linux kernel to provide pervasive, hard real-time support to Nucleus-, kernel-, and user-space applications, says Neuronics.

For non-programmers, the company provides a GUI-based application programming interface (API) called Katana 4D, which is targeted at industrial applications, and offers a built-in scripting language. Developers can move the robot arm into the desired position by hand, and Katana 4D detects the positioning, generating the appropriate code, says the company.

Katana 4D is also said to provide AI algorithms for path optimization and adaptation, and can automatically convert applications to Python for deployment on the Katana in standalone mode.

Founded seven years ago, Neuronics is a spin-off venture from the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at the Institute for Information Technology of the University of Zurich.

Source: Neuronics.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

ADVERTISERS:
Linux News Today.org is read by over 450,000 people involved in the field of Linux application development, professional Web hosting services, Linux security, Linux Web development, etc. Inquire about our reasonable advertising rates on our news website. One of our advertising representatives will be in touch with you. Simply email us to learn about our ad rates and how we can help drive relevant traffic to your website. Advertising space is limited.