An experimental setup for modelling, simulation and fast prototyping of mechanical arms

This work presents some results on a fast prototyping system used to model, simulate and control a planar manipulator at the Robotics Laboratory of the Politecnico di Torino. A unique environment allows to perform the entire range of procedures. A host-target architecture based on a PC-DSP link has been used for two basic advantages: simplicity of use, thanks to the well known PC environment hosting Matlab; real-time constraints fulfillment thanks to an independent hardware and software, devoted exclusively to the control function. Using the same Matlab environment, various experimental tests and data analysis have been performed, to determine a good model for friction phenomena. On the basis of such a model a simulator has been built, and nonlinear control laws have been tested.