Using the HCTL-1000 Motor Control Chip for Coordinated Robot Motions

The HCTL-1000 motor control chip was integrated into a robot programming and control system devloped at Hewlett-Packard Laboratories. A printed circuit board that plugs into an HP 9000 computer backplane holds up to four HCTL-1000 chips. Each chip controls one motor in a robot manipulator. Multiple boards are used for robots with more than four joints. Arbitrary robot end effector trajectories are generated in real time which result in a new position set point for each motor every 26 milliseconds. The integral velocity control mode of the HCTL-1000 chips is used to obtain the necessary motor profiles for producing the desired end effector motion.