This research is concerned with the development of a reliable scene analysis to be used as a subsystem, to continually update a geometrical world model in a robotic environment.
This research is concerned with the development of a reliable scene analysis to be used as a subsystem, to continually update a geometrical world model in a robotic environment.
This paper examines the basic characteristics of three different types of optical network in the context of important communications bottlenecks that may arise as the processing power of computers increases. The paper...
详细信息
This paper examines the basic characteristics of three different types of optical network in the context of important communications bottlenecks that may arise as the processing power of computers increases. The paper is more concerned with estimates of the ultimate performance of archetypal networks and computer architectures than with the present performance of systems and components. In this paper, we are concerned with the subset of optically connected parallel machines (OCPMs) which aspire to be general purpose computers (as opposed to special purpose machines such as image processors), and where the individual processors are relatively powerful. These are multiple-instruction, multiple-data machines.
This paper describes research into the specification, design and implementation of real-time synchronisation and control software for a Transputer-controlled, modular, multi-axis, independently driven, high-speed, pac...
详细信息
This paper describes research into the specification, design and implementation of real-time synchronisation and control software for a Transputer-controlled, modular, multi-axis, independently driven, high-speed, packaging machine under normal and abnormal conditions. The research has already demonstrated the feasibility of using independent drives and software-based controllers for the synchronisation of both intermittent and continuous motions in applications at the boundary of existing technology.
In the weaving industry a variety of meshes are manufactured, using both metallic and nonmetallic materials, for a wide variety of filtration applications. At present the quality of the mesh is monitored at several st...
详细信息
In the weaving industry a variety of meshes are manufactured, using both metallic and nonmetallic materials, for a wide variety of filtration applications. At present the quality of the mesh is monitored at several stages of the manufacturing process to keep selected parameters within specified limits. This involves stopping the process approximately every half hour, manually assessing the mesh quality, and taking remedial action as necessary. There is a need to replace these manual checks with an automatic system that can continually monitor the mesh as it is being manufactured and, with appropriate actuators, control the loom on-line. This paper presents initial results of research being conducted at Sheffield University to develop such a system for wire mesh. Early experiments proved that a contact measurement technique is inappropriate due to the severe vibrations and backlash nonlinearities present in most looms. The approach adopted here therefore, is to use imageprocessing techniques. The instrument is transputer based so that the imageprocessing can be performed on several processors to achieve the real-time performance necessary for on-line monitoring and control purposes.
Residue number arithmetic is a technique for mapping an integer computation into several parallel and independent computations requiring much shorter wordlengths. In this paper we present an architecture for carrying ...
详细信息
Residue number arithmetic is a technique for mapping an integer computation into several parallel and independent computations requiring much shorter wordlengths. In this paper we present an architecture for carrying out modulo arithmetic in a practically useful residue number system. An important feature of this is that it allows a single hardware design to be used for all moduli. We describe an application of this architecture for computing inner-products in convolutions, transforms and matrix-vector operations.
Alliant FX/Series systems offer architecture which is particularly well suited for real time simulation and control applications. Examples of applications which have been developed on the system include the Boeing Com...
详细信息
Alliant FX/Series systems offer architecture which is particularly well suited for real time simulation and control applications. Examples of applications which have been developed on the system include the Boeing Commercial Future Airplane simulator, NCAR Doppler Radar system for detecting wind shear and the Hughes Aircraft F/A-18 Weapons Training System. Mazda have recently completed a full vehicle simulator for the new Miata Model in which the vehicle dynamics, out of the window views and instruments are all controlled by a central Alliant system.
A transputer array is used for visual texture analysis. The image is segmented and individual segments are sent to the transputer array to be analysed. The analysis technique is based on fractal texture measurements b...
详细信息
A transputer array is used for visual texture analysis. The image is segmented and individual segments are sent to the transputer array to be analysed. The analysis technique is based on fractal texture measurements but modified to be suitable for non-fractal natural texture. Dynamic load balancing is used on the transputers in the array with software written in a modular fashion to facilitate changes in topology. Various topologies are used and their efficiencies are compared. Bottlenecks are identified and eliminated and 89% efficiency is achieved using an array of 18 transputers. Future avenues of investigation are discussed.
Robots, like humans, must gather extensive information about their environment in order to function effectively. This information is gathered and fed to the robot via sensors. Sensors may be categorised by their chara...
详细信息
Robots, like humans, must gather extensive information about their environment in order to function effectively. This information is gathered and fed to the robot via sensors. Sensors may be categorised by their characteristics, by the types of physical phenomena or by application. In the majority of robotic systems currently available, a change in the type of sensors employed will require significant change to other parts of the system. The knock on effect caused by changes to sensors arises from the lack of independence between the different functions of current robotic systems. In this paper, a transputer based system is described where the sensors and the software that control them are separate from the processors that use the information they provide. This separation of data provider from data user enables the software that controls the sensors (and even the sensors themselves) to be upgraded with no corresponding changes to the data user software. Additional sensors can easily be added to the system while obsolete sensors can simply be removed. The nature of the task under consideration suggests that an extendible parallel architecture would be better suited to providing the processing requirements of such a system, than a traditional Von Neumann architecture. In general, one of the difficulties in using parallelarchitectures is that it is difficult to recognise inherent parallelism in problems. However, in the present task the parallel operation of modules is self evident.
Agriculture and the production of food are often seen as relatively low technology areas. In reality they represent some of the most challenging environments for the application of computer systems. This paper reports...
详细信息
Agriculture and the production of food are often seen as relatively low technology areas. In reality they represent some of the most challenging environments for the application of computer systems. This paper reports the development of a system for grading vegetables and fruit. Because the unit value of even high quality vegetables is low, they must be inspected at high speeds to make a machine commercially worthwhile. In this work an imageprocessing system was developed for grading potatoes at up to 2000 specimens per minute. The system is under the control of a Motorola 68000 processor which drives a specially designed data reduction unit operating directly on frames grabbed from the t.v. camera. The reduced data is routed to 4 further 68010 processors all of which are running concurrently. With the exception of the data reduction unit the system was designed around commercial processor cards communicating via a VME bus. This approach represents a practical solution to a real problem and the resulting system is now commercially available.
Alliant FX/Series systems offer a unique architecture which is particularly well suited for real time simulation and control applications. Examples of applications which have been developed on the system include the B...
详细信息
Alliant FX/Series systems offer a unique architecture which is particularly well suited for real time simulation and control applications. Examples of applications which have been developed on the system include the Boeing Commercial Future Airplane simulator, NCAR Doppler Radar system for detecting wind shear and the Hughes Aircraft F/A-18 weapons Training System. Mazda have recently completed a full vehicle simulator for the new Miata Model in which the vehicle dynamics, out of the window views and instruments are all controlled by a central Alliant system.< >
暂无评论