Real-Time Operating System for Multitasking Control in the Robotics and Automation Industry

Real-Time Operating System (RTOS) is an Operating System (OS) that does a task in a constrained time. The RTOS is integrated with the microprocessor or microcontroller for specialized applications where the time-bound completion of the task is very much substantial. ESP32 is a microcontroller that comes with a package of advantageous and suitable features for RTOS. The ability of equipment like motors, sensors, and actuators to multitask is critical in the Robotics and Automation (R&A) industry. In industries, a dedicated/centralized system allocated for a particular activity is not economically feasible; yet, when performing several tasks, some delay or lag is introduced in the task. Consequently, the proposed solution for industrial multitasking is cost-effective and efficient. The RTOS is suitable for machines constrained to do painstaking work, like a robotic arm or CNC drilling. In the R&A industry, a hardware interruption is often critical for an emergency, which may also be accomplished using RTOS. In such applications, implementing a software timer is also essential to delay a task for a period of time. Stepper and servo motors are widely employed in the R&A industries for various applications. This article presents the multitasking of four stepper motors and the introduction of a software timer, which will be developed when the stepper motor multitasking is implemented. For multitasking, the FreeRTOS library will be utilized.