Kinematix

Posted September 10th, 2009 by Anonymous

Table of Contents

 

What is Kinematix?

Kinematix is robot independent middleware software that is used to create control programs, design software, and simulations of robotic systems including high degree-of freedom (DOF) robots, dual and multi arm systems, robotic workcells, and mobile manipulation systems. Its object oriented design allows rapid configuration and extension with support for custom controls integration. Kinematix is based on technology that was developed at The University of Texas at Austin with over $12M in research funding and is supported by hundreds of publications and a global user base of over 1000.

 

Who Should Use Kinematix?

Kinematix gives research labs, companies, and developers the tools to efficiently transition an idea from design, simulation, and prototype to a successful robotics product or solution. Specific user benefits include: 
Industrial Systems – Industrial robotics, controls & PLC developers benefit from high performance coordinated motion and collision prevention.
Medical Devices – Standardized software development process,certification documents, and emphasis on safety streamlines 510 (k) filings.
Defense and Homeland Security – Develop dexterous mobile manipulation systems with seamless switching between teleoperation and autonomous control.

 

 How do you use Kinematix?

Developers start by specifying the properties of a given robot arm and the environment in an XML file or through the Application Programming Interface (API). These properties include kinematic, mass, geometry, coordinates, tools, etc. Based on these properties, various components in Kinematix can be used to build a kinematic and dynamic model of the system and also optimize the control of the system using various criteria, including collision avoidance, force control, limits avoidance, mobile manipulation amongst others. The outputs of the software are position rate, acceleration and torque values that can be used to command the system’s joint actuators or a simulation.

 

Multiple Levels to Choose From

Kinematix is available in Bronze, Silver, and Gold levels, with the ability to easily upgrade from one level to the next:  

  • Kinematix Bronze: This version contains all necessary functionality for performing Kinematics and Dynamics for robot manipulators. This includes low-level support for necessary mathematics and basic file i/o as well high-level classes for performing generalized forward and inverse kinematic/dynamic calculations.
  • Kinematix Silver: The version contains all functionality from Kinematix Bronze as well as functionality for generating and executing robotic trajectories. This will allow a user to easily integrate applications developed using Kinematix SDK into existing hardware controllers.
  •  Kinematix Gold: On top of the functionality from the Bronze and Silver versions, Kinematix Gold adds the ability to model robot manipulators/workcells in XML format, redundancy resolution, obstacle avoidance and collision detection.

   

Platforms, Languages, and Performance

  • C/C++, Windows, Linux. Custom OS available
  • Deterministic (OS dependent)
  • Small footprint for embedded systems

   

Licensing

  • Per user SDK license with annual maintenance
  • Run time licenses
  • Academic discount available

   

Further information

For more information, contact us here.