Description

 The motion mate is designed to be somewhat of a full machine control scheme with motion control capabilities. It consists of what I like to think of as three main subsystems.

1. The processor subsystem is represented in blue on the block diagram. This subsystem consists of a main Digital Signal Processor that is responsible for any tasks that are not considered “real time”. What is “real time” you ask? I consider “real time” tasks to be anything that has to be synchronized to the overall system function (motor control, limit switches, e-stops, etc.) The non “real time” tasks generally consist of either handling communication protocols (USB, CAN bus, Ethernet, etc.) or doing kinematic and motion planning calculations that will be executed by the real time subsystem at a later point.

2. The real time subsystem is represented by green on the block diagram. This subsystem is made up of an FPGA that controls all “real time” tasks. The main “real time” tasks are providing control pulses to motor driver, synchronizing movement between Axis, and interfacing to quadrature encoders. It also handles things that an FPGA is more suited to than a DSP such as high speed I/O interfacing.

3. The I/O subsystem is represented by orange on the block diagram. This subsystem is less of a single system and more of many smaller systems that don’t really fit the other two subsystems. Things such as general purpose I/O that is not time sensitive, ADC and DAC interfaces for machine diagnostics, and any other “odds and ends” peripherals that may be handy for machine control.