Advanced motion control of mechatronic systems via a high-speed DSP and a parallel processing transputer network

Abstract

This paper presents a system for implementing advanced motion control using a floating-point digital signal processor (DSP) and a transputer-based parallel processing system. The discussion includes a brief look at the advantages of using DSPs in real-time control applications and the techniques of integrating DSPs with parallel processing transputer networks to enhance computing power. The main focus of this paper is the design of a system that combines the excellent real-time response of the Texas Instruments TMS320C30 DSP with the superior computational power of a parallel processing system based on Intel i860 RISC processors and Inmos transputers. The software of the system is hosted in the popular MATLAB environment to provide a simple user interface as well as many powerful mathematical tools. The system also includes a simulation package to allow rapid verification of the user's program and control algorithm. The system is ideal for implementing advanced motion control experiments requiring high speed floating point computations and fast sampling rates. A complex adaptive motor control experiment is presented in this paper to illustrate the use of the system.<>