Supervisory control, where man and computer cooperate to achieve better performance, offers benefits in the hostile and delicate environment.
In this thesis, the functional aspects of a supervisory control system for a remote manipulator which is suitable for working in hostile environment are studied.
To achieve this purpose, the appropriate control modes including conventional modes are selected and implemented. Substantially, the main functions of supervisory control module are as follows :
COMPUTER mode, JOINT mode, JOYSTICK mode, EDIT mode, TRACE mode, RESET mode, EMERGENCY STOP mode.
In computer mode, the various kinds of move instruction, Save and Load instruction related to file operation are executed by programming. And joint mode is for individual joint motion using toggle switches.
Particularly, in joystick mode and edit mode, two joysticks and 3 channel A/D conveter are used for 3 dimensional movement of a remote manipulator in the direction of applied force and at the speed proportional to its magnitude.
And a new path edit function, named 'Interactive Path Edit Method', is employed in edit mode. By this method, path edit is executed by moving to each configuration stored in memory one after another asking in each configuration whether operator wants to edit this configuration.
Trace mode is used for the replay of stored path in memory, and emergency stop and reset mode for emergency or abnormal operation.
The performance evaluation of the suggested supervisory control system was carried out by using microcomputer, IBM PC/XT, for supervisory control computer and Rhino Robot System as a remote manipulator for the various working conditions.
