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Session 2526

Remote Control of a Robot Using LabVIEW and the World Wide Web

Elaine Cooney, Anna Shiver Electrical Engineering Technology, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis

Introduction

This paper describes a prototype system to control a robot via the World Wide Web. The user is able to move the robot and view the results through a video camera. National Instruments’ LabVIEW software is used to program the system.

There are two major goals of this project. The first is to replace DOS based robot controllers with modern motion control hardware and software. Not only does this eliminate the difficulty of finding computers that are capable of communicating with the controllers, but the system is flexible enough to give students experience with many levels of motion control. Students may only use the top level of the application and program the robot in a “teach pendant” mode, or they may read encoders and energize the motors step by step.

The second goal is to allow monitoring and control of the robot over the Internet. This may be used for students in a distance education environment, but is also attractive for K-12 demonstrations. LabVIEW 6i makes Web interface easy, using the DataSocket software (included in LabVIEW) to pass controls and information between the Web application and server.

Hardware Description

The motion control card is a National Instruments 7344 Motion Controller. It has encoder inputs and control outputs for four axis using stepper or servo motors and four ports of digital I/O. In this project configuration the digital outputs are used to control the motor. Pulse width modulation is used to change the speed of motion. The motion control and digital I/O are on separate connectors, so two cables and connector blocks are needed. (See Figure 1.)

Driver circuits for the motors have been designed and built in-house so the robot can be controlled from a variety of sources, including micro controllers and programable logic controllers. The driver circuits (one for each axis) converts TTL level signals to +/- 12V, high current signals necessary for the servo motors. The driver circuits also provide connectivity to the encoder and hard home signals. Circuitry on the robot prevents motion past the end of travel switches, and these signals are not available on the cables coming from the robot.

“Proceedings of the 2001 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2001, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Shiver, A., & Cooney, E. M. (2001, June), Remote Control Of A Robot Using Lab View And The World Wide Web Paper presented at 2001 Annual Conference, Albuquerque, New Mexico. 10.18260/1-2--9731