Neuronics AG - Software/System Architecture

The Katana System, Control and Communication Software consists of the following components:

Real Time Nucleus

Xanomai Hard Real Time Nucleus
Adeos HAL
CAN RTDM Driver

Linux

Linux 2.4.25, Kernel 2.6 optional
Driver Patches for Controlboard Hardware
Python 2.5

Katana Services

Communication Server
Standalone Mode
CANopen (PDO) driver interface
Controlpad Deamon
Ajax based Web Interface
Process Image Server
Eventhandler as Webservice
Configurable debugging modes
XML-RPC Command & Control Interface
Linux Shell Interface via Webservice
SOAP Server Command & Control Interface

Operation Modes

Control Mode
Standalone direct
Standalone RPC

High-level software

The architecture of the Katana embedded robot control system has been designed to provide a transparent interface to external and internal control application programs while retaining the legacy interfaces that were implemented for earlier Katana versions. This allows for different legacy and new control and visualization clients to have access to the robot at the same time, while the details of the real-time control implementation remain hidden to them.

The client applications are to support all kinds of operators and users: those who like to program literally everything themselves and those who have never written a line of code. For the former, Neuronics provides the Katana Native Interface KNI, a C++ library for control application development at the lowest interface level. Programs written in KNI can also be cross compiled an run directly on the robot. The interface to this library is also exported as a Python binding, so that native and external programs can be written directly in Python.

On the side of a comfortable and easy to use programming and control interface, Neuronics has developed Katana4D. It has been designed for industrial applications and provides an easy but powerful control environment for the Katana robot. Skills in any programming language are not required. Additionally, there is the possibility for the user to create an application easily by means of an inbuilt scripting language or by simply teaching the robot by hand. There are different possibilities to teach the target positions within the workspace of the robot. The arm can be moved to the desired position by hand, and the exact positioning can be achieved with a few mouse-clicks from within Katana4D. It comes with full inbuilt support for AI algorithms that can be used for path optimization and adaptation.

Standalone Program Export

Programs written in Katana4D can be automatically converted to Python and directly deployed onto the Katana.