customer success
ALSTOM Schilling RoboticsDevelopment tools selected for complex robotic systems
ALSTOM Schilling Robotics is theworld leader in telerobotic technology.Their systems operate in the world’smost difficult environments, fromthe crushing pressure of the oceanfloor, to the high radiation ofnuclear reactors, and the toxicatmosphere within waste facilities. Schilling needs a reliable softwareframework: a critical fault in thesoftware running these systemscould result in the loss of veryexpensive equipment. At the sametime, the software must be flexibleand able to support rapid develop-ment across Schillings many product lines.That’s why they chose the Real-Time Innovations® (RTI)Constellation™ software platform with the RTI Data Distribution Service (formerlyNDDS) distributed networking layer.
Constellation Enables Fast and ReliableControl System Development
Schilling used the Constellation softwareplatform to develop and integrate thecontrols and communications for the roboticmodules in the Titan 3 and Conan remotemanipulator systems and the QuestRemotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). UsingConstellation, the software engineers:• Develop incrementally: Constellation
scales well with project complexity.Schilling engineers break down complexsystems into a hierarchy of interactingcomponents. Each component is individ-ually designed, developed and tested on ahost system (well before the hardware isavailable). The components are then inte-grated into higher level componentswhich in turn are tested and combinedinto even higher level components.
• Share designs and re-use code:Constellation’s graphical “drawing board”provides a repository of re-usable modulesand visual diagram editor. Engineersbuild components using graphic dataflow and state chart representations andthen store these in the repository. Any
other engineer can pick up the diagrams,easily figure out what it does, and re-useit or modify it to suit their purposes.Over 60 percent of the code first developedfor a sub-sea operations project controllinga dual Titan 3 arm system was reused in anuclear waste cleanup project controllingboom-mounted dual Conan arms.
• Tailor to each customer’s needs: Everycustomer has special requirements;modifications and re-designs are a fact oflife. The engineers make changes at thediagram level. The Constellation frame-work generates the code and configuresthe run-time scheduling accordingly,reducing the labor costs from 30%–50%.
Constellation helped Schilling in othermeasurable and immeasurable ways: • Concurrent development: Teams could
work on different subsystems in parallel.Constellation manages the relationshipsbetween components in each subsystem,reducing the integration phase labor costsby 30%.
• Controls systems focus: Applicationdevelopment was easier, and more intuitive,using a framework designed specificallyfor sensing and control applications.
Conan Remote Manipulator System
“We got the dual Conans up andrunning in a matter of days. Itwould have been months if we had not been able to reuse theConstellation components developed for the Titan project.”
Dual Titan Arms
About RTI
RTI supplies middleware and distributeddata management solutions for real-timesystems. With innovative technology anddeep expertise in distributed applications,RTI provides an unequaled competitiveadvantage to customers developing systemsthat benefit from high-performance accessto time-critical data. RTI solutions havebeen deployed in a broad range of appli-cations including command and control,intelligence, surveillance, data fusion,simulation, industrial control, air trafficcontrol, railway management, roadwaytraffic monitoring and multimediacommunications. Founded in 1991, RTI is privately held and headquartered inSunnyvale, California.
US HEADQUARTERS
Real-Time Innovations, Inc.385 Moffett Park DriveSunnyvale, CA 94089Tel: (408) 990-7400Fax: (408) [email protected]
www.r t i .com©2006 Real-Time Innovations, Inc. All rights reserved. RTI, Real-Time Innovations, and The Real-Time MiddlewareCompany are registered trademarks or trademarks of Real-TimeInnovations, Inc. All other trademarks used in this document are theproperty of their respective owners. 0406
ALSTOM Schilling Robotics customer success
• Documentation: Constellation automati-cally generates HTML documentationfor all components.
• Debugging: The close integrationbetween the Constellation frameworkand its debugging tools reduced the laborduring test and debug by 50%.
Schilling’s latest product is the Quest ROV.An underwater unmanned vehicle used forservicing, installation, exploration, salvage,and recovery operations. It runs from anall-electric propulsion system with anadvanced network design to reduce thecomplexity of the cabling between the ROV and its support ship. Schilling usedthe Constellation framework to develop itscontrol software. Schilling added theConstellation real-time, publish-subscribecommunications middleware, RTI DataDistribution Service, to simplify ROV-to-ship communications in this project. Schilling continues to use Constellation forupcoming projects. The engineers re-usethe components developed for Titan, Conanand Quest, modify existing components toincorporate algorithm and hardwareimprovements, and add new components,all within Constellation’s graphical diagrameditor. The Constellation framework inte-grates new and old components, reducingrework and testing.
Publish-Subscribe Provides a FlexibleNetworking Backbone
The RTI real-time publish-subscribe net-working middleware ties together Schilling’sdistributed computing architectures usingindustry-standard Internet Protocols. Themiddleware provides a common,
communications API across a wide varietyof processor architectures and operatingsystems and eliminates the networkprogramming. This gives Schilling’sengineers the flexibility to use differentprocessors and operating systems and addnew publishers and subscribers withoutmodifying existing components.
RTI Consulting Services ProvideValuable Expertise Early in Project Cycle
The RTI Consulting Organization workedwith Schilling Robotics during criticalphases of design, implementation, and newproduct testing. The consulting experts
provided product training and design analysisto make sure engineers were using the toolsefficiently. They also provided programmingtalent. On several occasions, when Schillingneeded additional support to meet theirstringent delivery deadlines, the consultingorganization assisted Schilling in designingand implementing the software control subsystems. “RTI consultants produce high qualitydesigns and code that works ‘right out ofthe box’. I like to bring them in very earlyin a project and take advantage of theirexpertise.”
The Quest"The entire Quest control system is based on thepublish-subscribe paradigm. We made that choicebased on its flexibility and efficiency. We use RTIthroughout, and it has proven to be very reliable.This allowed me to focus my resources on the otheraspects of the control system."
—Richard Gross, Schilling Chief Software Engineer
