EMC now supports arbitrary serial kinematics (fwd)
ben lipkowitz
realtime control of machine tools such as milling machines and lathes.
The ability to control a robot has long been possible, but you had to
write (or adapt) and compile a custom kinematics module, and recompile it
every time you added a new moving part, like a rotary table for example.
With this latest bit of code you can now load arbitrary assemblies of
linear and rotary motion components, and modify their parameters on the
fly.
If you passed up EMC earlier because it was "just for machine tools", now
might be a good time to look into it again.
-fenn
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 2009 15:49:13 +0300
From: Alex Joni <alex...@robcon.ro>
Reply-To: EMC developers <emc-dev...@lists.sourceforge.net>
To: emc-...@lists.sourceforge.net
Cc: emc-dev...@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: [Emc-developers] PUMA and other robots
Just a quick info on new robot-related work available in emc2 Git master:
1. genserkins - general kinematics for serial manipulators,
these work for manipulators with up to 8 joints, either rotary or prismatic, and provide forward and inverse kinematics and jacobian functions.
2. An example using these kins can be found in the new puma560 sample configuration. (puma/puma560.ini)
3. The sample configuration also includes a vismach model.
So far things seem to be working pretty well, although there are still cases when the inverseKins doesn't work (for singularities, etc), so my advice so far would be to run it on a simulator build of emc2 (else it can freeze your PC).
Some screenshots, and the model used for vismach can be found at http://juve.ro/blog/puma
As a side-note, there is ongoing work on the joints-axes3 branch, which should sort out the design limitations we have on master right now. (several places use AXES when they mean Joints, and vice-versa, limits are applied on axes, not joints, etc). Once that is finished, and merged into master, I expect the puma-560 to be fully supported by emc2 ;)
Regards,
Alex