Development of a new controller with FPGA for PUMA 560 robot

In this paper is presented architecture of the controller for controlling the base configuration of PUMA 560 robot (three axes). Developed controller (designated for student education) has hardware part based on Altera Cyclon II FPGA chip implemented on DE2 development board and software part MATLAB® with corresponding toolboxes. Matlab with installed Robotics Toolbox was used for the purposes such as generating trajectory of movement, calculating inverse kinematics, gravity compensation and simulation of manipulator movements. The control structures were which have been previously devised in Matlab/DSP Builder using FPGA Real Time Toolbox were implemented on FPGA chip. Performed experimental results showed that proposed concept of the controller design satisfied appointed requirements such as easy simulation, programming and testing controller performances, so the next objective of research will be design of the improved control algorithms of robot and design of new Teachbox.