Fast Forward Dynamics Algorithm for Robot Arms Using Multi-Processing

The computation of the direct dynamics problem (forward dynamics) plays a major role in the real-time computer modelling and simulation of robot manipulators. The efficient and computationally inexpensive solution of this problem facilitates the design of real-time robot simulators. In addition, it allows for a better understanding of the key elements affecting robot operations. This work proposes to solve this problem by employing parallel and distributed processing techniques. First, a parallel implementation of a simplified Lagrange-Euler formulation is used to solve for the dynamics. Second, a resulting system of linear equations is solved using Gaussian-Elimination with simple row interchange. Both algorithms are distributed over a multiple-instruction, multiple-data stream (MIMD)computer architecture.