Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this document, and the RWRCCL/RCI software, is granted for non-commercial and research purposes only, and providing that (1) no fee is charged except the minimum necessary to cover copying and shipping expenses, and (2) all copyright notices are preserved and the authors are fully acknowledged. All other rights are reserved. The commercial sale of RWRCCL/RCI, its supporting documentation, or a system which contains RWRCCL/RCI as a component, is prohibited unless permission is obtained from the authors.

1. Introduction

This  document replaces the  extensive  hardware installation manual supplied with the original RCCL distribution.  Hardware installation is much simpler for the RWRCCL/RCI system, and this document simply points to hardware installation instructions provided by other vendors.

2.0 Install the Mark V automation (Formerly trident) TRC004/006 Boards
RWRCCL/RCI uses the "off the shelf" hardware solution for accessing the control signals and servo amplifiers of the PUMA robot. The following is text from the Mark V Automation web page:
http://pages.prodigy.net/tridentrobotics/

PUMA Interface Board

The TRC004 is a multi-channel interface board that provides 6 channels of encoder counters; 8 channels of high quality, 12-bit, D/A; 8 channels of 12-bit A/D; a watchdog timer; and several bits of digital I/O for acquisition by the host bus of your choice. The unique design of the TRC004 allows it to be placed directly inside the Unimation controller, keeping wire runs short and away from the noisy environment of the host computer. A separate, low-cost bus interface, specific to your host computer, provides address and data decoding. A benefit of this design is that only the cheaper bus interface must be replaced if you upgrade to a faster host computer system.

PUMA Cabling Card Set

The TRC041 is a cabling card set that plugs into the backplane of Unimate controllers to collect all the signals necessary for the TRC004 to take over low-level control of the PUMA arm.

The TRC042 is a cabling card set based on the TRC041 that is compatible with the TRC-S8. Contact Trident for availability.

Hardware installation  for RWRCCL therefore involves purchasing  and installing the card set as per the supplied instructions.

2.1 Other Servo Control Cards
Some researchers have suggested using the Galil Motion Control or other servo control card instead of the  TRC004/006.  (Coincidentally I have a Galil card for another project so I may be able to  provide more concrete information in the future).  I see no reason why using a Galil or other card would  be  inherently incompatible with this distribution.  Because the Galil card performs closed loop servo, this function could be eliminated from the  moperx program.  However, the remaining functions of performing real-time reads and writes to the robot controller and providing the interrupt for the RCI scheduler would remain.  Although I have not tired this myself, it seems to me it would be fairly straightforward to modify this distribution to work with a servo control card.  Once accomplished, this distribution would still provide all the desirable task scheduling, motion planning and higher level math functions so desirable from the original RCCL system.  

3.0 Installing the teach pendant cable
We re-wrote teachdemo to allow use of the teach pendant (bulky orange one).  In the new configuration, we connect the teach pendant to any serial I/O port of the Linux PC (/dev/ttyS0).  The teach pendant connects to the front of the control chassis and the chassis provides power through this connection.  However, the serial lines from the teach pendant are routed through a 10-pin ribbon connector that used to plug into the LSI11 board.  We accessed the serial lines (2,3, & 7) at this 10-pin flat connector and routed these to pins (3,2 & 7) on the serial line.


I will make this section more clear when I have time.  
M.S.