A VLSI 3-DIMENSIONAL PROCESSOR FOR ADVANCED ROBOTIC MANIPULATION

THE DIGITAL CONTROL OF ROBOTIC SYSTEMS IS AN EXTREMELY NUMERICALLY INTENSIVE PROBLEM AND VERY IMPORTANT TO THE AUTOMATION OF MANIPULATION TASKS IN SPACE. DYNAMIC MICROSYSTEMS HAS RECOGNIZED THAT ALGORITHMS FOR SOLVING THESE PROBLEMS ARE MOST EFFICIENTLY FORMULATED USING 3-DIMENSIONAL GEOMETRIC COMPUTATIONS (I.E. CROSS PRODUCTS, VECTOR ROTATIONS, AND HOMOGENEOUS TRANSFORMATIONS). DYNAMIC MICROSYSTEMS HAS WORKED JOINTLY WITH THE CENTER FOR ROBOTIC SYSTEMS IN MICROELECTRONICS AT UCSB TO DEVELOP A UNIQUE PROCESSOR ARCHITECTURE - THE 3DP - WHICH DEMONSTRATESSUPERIOR PERFORMANCE FOR 3-D COMPUTATIONS. THIS ARCHITECTURE HAS ALREADY BEEN PROVEN BY A DISCRETE-LOGIC IMPLEMENTAION. AN OBJECT-ORIENTED C++ COMPILER HAS ALREADY BEEN WRITTEN TO SUPPORT THIS UNIQUE DESIGN. DYNAMIC MICROSYSTEMS PROPOSES TO STUDY THE PROBLEMS OF INTEGRATING THE 3DP INTO VLSI. A VLSI IMPLEMENTATION WILL PROVIDE UNMATCHED COMPUTATIONAL SPEED FOR ADVANCED MANIPULATION. A VLSI 3DP WILL GIVE NASA A SMALL, ENERGY-EFFICIENT PROCESSOR WITH THE COMPUTATIONAL POWER TO PERFORM ADVANCED MANIPULATIONS IN SPACE.