[Tyler]

Linux-based Katana Intelligent Robotic Arm
     



LinuxDevices.com
reports on a new robotic arm developed by Neuronics
AG of Zurich,
Switzerland. This new arm, called the Katana
Robotic Arm, is designed for use in industry, production,
lab automation, and research. The arm is controlled by a single-board
computer that includes a Freescale MPC5200 CPU and six TI TMS320 32bit
motor controllers. The system relies on the CAN bus architecture. The
C++ communication and motion libraries that control the arm are open
source allowing extensive customization not possible with traditional
proprietary industrial robots. The libraries also include Python
bindings. Need more
ways to interface to it? How about a SOAP server, an XML-RPC interface,
an AJAX-based web interface, a CAN interface, and a Linux command line
shell interface. The system runs on top of Linux and was developed with
the Denx Embedded Linux
Development Kit. The price tag for all this open source goodness is
$24,900 USD.

   

http://robots.net/article/2700.html