Versatile robot control system

A control system for processing a program of robot instructions for robots having a mechanical joint, a mechanical actuator to move the joint and a position feedback sensor, the mechanical actuator being adapted to receive an activation signal and the feedback sensor providing a position signal, the control system comprising:

• a general purpose computer with a general purpose operating system, said general purpose computer including a program execution module to selectively start and stop processing of the program of robot instructions and to generate a plurality of robot move commands;
• and
• a real-time computer subsystem in electronic communication with said general purpose computer and operably linked to the mechanical actuator and the position feedback sensor, a move command data buffer for storing said plurality of move commands, a robot move module linked to said data buffer to sequentially process said plurality of move commands and calculate a required position for the mechanical joint, and a control algorithm in software communication with said robot move module to repeatedly calculate a required activation signal from a position signal and said required position for the mechanical joint.