Title: Precision Space Motion Controller
Authors: Jack Silberman, Red Whittaker
PI: Red Whittaker
Objective: This program will develop and demonstrate a high temperature
space worthy motion controller. We will create a low power lightweight
precise motion control processor for use with a variety of brushless DC
motors, DC brush motors, and servomechanisms. This controller will be highly
integrated in a (~2" x 0.5") package.The motion controller capabilities will
include a facilitated high-level commands, minimal power consumption, rad
tolerance, and high temperature operation.
We will design a space worthy motion controller that can perform intensive
real-time computational tasks required for high performance digital motion
control.

Justification: NASA robots consume CPU cycles or utilize suboptimal devices
to implement motion control. If appropriate controllers were available, then
CPU cycles could be free for tasks such as planning, trajectory
computations, and communications.
There is need in the NASA TRIWG and flight community for a low power precise
motion controller similar to commercial state of the art motion controllers.
 Moreover the single chip controller proposed here will enable the
implementation of redundant control schemes (i.e., in case of hardware
redundancy/duplication).

Approach: Our approach is to collect the requirements from the NASA TRIWG
community toward a design that will serve community needs. We will partner
with a motion controller chip designer such as Hewlett Packard, and
radiation hardened chip designers such as Harris Corporation. NASA Lewis
Research Center will contribute technology from its High Temperature
Integrated Electronics and Sensors (HTIES) program to lead the chip
implementation for extreme temperatures. 

Commercial potential: The proposed technology is applicable to intelligent
actuators and distributed control schemes. Such architecture require less
CPU resource to operate, and less cabling and connecting than conventional
actuators & control. The use of intelligent actuators is growing in
automobiles, aircraft, and in the industrial automation community. The
resulting motion controller will be widely applied to enable low mass, rad
tolerant, high temperature distributed control systems.

Deliverables:
 - Basic research in space precise motion controllers and high temperature
low power electronics.
 - Prototype of a space qualified low power high temperature single chip
motion controller
 - Prototype of a basic robotics controller using the precise motion controller

Schedule: A three year program. 
   1997 - Design and prototype in Si
   1998 - Design and prototype in SiC (for extreme temperatures)
   1999 - Test, evaluation, demonstration

Budget:
   1997 - 200 K
   1998 - 200K
   1999 - 200K

Partnerships and Participants:
- Carnegie Mellon Field Robotics Center: Precise space motion controller
design, demonstration of a basic high temperature robotics controller using
the precise space motion controller.
- NASA Lewis: High Temperature Integrated Electronics and Sensors program,
SiC technology (possible)
- Hewlett Packard: Single chip motion controller device design (possible)
- Harris Corporation: Radiation Hardened Si chip implementation
- JPL: Space processors and electronics components design partnership
(possible).