Robotics methods for beam line instrument simulation and control

The majority of sample positioning systems in use at neutron and synchrotron beam line facilities around the world, may be accurately described as serial robot manipulators, i.e. they comprise a series of rotating or translating links connected together in a chain, with the tool or sample that is to be manipulated attached to one end. This characterization suggests that the methods of serial robot kinematic modeling might be usefully applied to the task of simulating and controlling beam line positioning systems. We describe how this approach is being developed within the planning, simulation and control software, SScanSS. The advantages of using the robotics approach are shown to include the ability to: i) model any number of disparate positioning systems from within one software (and hence one user interface), with a minimum of instrument specific code, ii) accurately and speedily position and orientate samples of arbitrary complexity, and iii) provide options for automatically optimizing other important experimental parameters, such as the measurement count time. The possible extension of this technique to include parallel robotic systems, such as Stewart Platforms, is also discussed. ______________________________________________________________________________________