This is a proposed joint research effort among three institutions: Hughes Research Laboratory (HRL, James G. Nash), University of Southern California (USC, S.Y. Kung), and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn, Richard P. Paul). This effort is to develop a special-purpose systolic-array computer for use in a robotics environment. Each of the three parties has special talents with regard to this proposed research: HRL is concerned with the architecture and algorithms for matrix-based linear algebraic computers; the research at USC is aimed at mapping problems into arrays; and UPenn specializes in robot manipulator control problems. The purposes of this effort are to interface a high-performance systolic-array processor to a robot manipulator, to re-evaluate and improve on the design of the processor, to develop new parallel algorithms for such machines, to develop and evaluate various appropriate kinematic control algorithms, and to develop algorithms for projecting problems onto machines of this type. In the opinion of the program director, these are three first-class researchers who propose research on an experimental system that may significantly impact the robotics control area. Funding with the revised budgets and added conditions in the attached documents is strongly recommended.
