JPL Develops Electronics Architecture for Robots

Posted 3 Feb 2008 at 23:23 UTC by steve

According to NASA Tech Briefs, JPL has proposed an electronics architecture for the rapid construction and testing of robot prototypes. The architecture is based on the PC/104 standard and adds specifications for reconfigurable and modular I/O, processors, sensors, actuators and other functions. Also included in the architecture design are multiple watchdog timers for the computer and other boards. So far the complete architecture doesn't appear to be published online anywhere but, hopefully it will be soon. The architecture was designed by Michael Garrett, Brett Kennedy, and others at JPL's Robotics Hardware System Group.

This company appears to want to stay in business., posted 5 Feb 2008 at 02:51 UTC by TheDuck » (Journeyer)

"In accordance with Public Law 96-517, the contractor has elected to retain title to this invention. Inquiries concerning rights for its commercial use should be addressed to: Innovative Technology Assets Management, JPL, Mail Stop 202-233, 4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, (818) 354- 2240, E-mail: iaoffice@jpl.nasa.gov"

A great sounding concept. There have been other control architectures out there for software but I like this idea in hardware. I'd love to hear about the specification for the interfaces. The brief in the article suggests explicit commands are sent to the module. Hopefully, this is just an example and something more "neural" can run the show.

I don't imagine there's any harm in emailing the address given so....I'll do that!

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