A new project to address run-time reconfigurable hardware systems

Last autumn, we started a new project named Context Switching Reconfigurable Hardware for Communication Systems (COSRECOS). In this talk, I would like to present how we plan to address the challenge of changing hardware configurations while a system is in operation. The overall goal of the project is to contribute in making run-time reconfigurable systems more feasible in general. This includes introducing architectures for reducing reconfiguration time as well as undertaking tool development. Case studies by applications in network and communication systems will be a part of the project. Comments to the planned outline are much welcome

Contrasting Views of Complexity and Their Implications For Network-Centric Infrastructures

There exists a widely recognized need to better understand and manage complex “systems of systems,” ranging from biology, ecology, and medicine to network-centric technologies. This is motivating the search for universal laws of highly evolved systems and driving demand for new mathematics and methods that are consistent, integrative, and predictive. However, the theoretical frameworks available today are not merely fragmented but sometimes contradictory and incompatible. We argue that complexity arises in highly evolved biological and technological systems primarily to provide mechanisms to create robustness. However, this complexity itself can be a source of new fragility, leading to “robust yet fragile” tradeoffs in system design. We focus on the role of robustness and architecture in networked infrastructures, and we highlight recent advances in the theory of distributed control driven by network technologies. This view of complexity in highly organized technological and biological systems is fundamentally different from the dominant perspective in the mainstream sciences, which downplays function, constraints, and tradeoffs, and tends to minimize the role of organization and design

Evolvable Hardware Based Optimal Position Control of Quadcopter

Trading off performance metrics in control design for position tracking is unavoidable. This has severe consequences in mission-critical systems such as quadcopter applications. The controller area and propulsion energy are conflicting design parameters, whereas the reliability and tracking speed are related metrics to be optimized. In this research, a switching-based position controller was co-simulated with the quadcopter model. Performance analysis of the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)-based controller validates a better scheme for tracking speed, propulsion energy, and reliability optimization under similar error performance. To improve the computation power and controller area, the dynamic partial reconfiguration(DPR) approach has been adapted and implemented on FPGA using the Vivado Integrated Development Environment (IDE), where a ranking-based approach brings into action either proportional derivative, sliding mode, or model predictive controllers for each dimension of position tracking. It is verified by analyzing the cumulative tracking speed, reliability, controller area, and propulsion energy metrics that the proposed controller can optimize all these metrics within three successive iterations of tracking either in the same direction or in any combination of directions. Concerning the implementation results of the controller with the switching-based controller, there is 6 % computation power and 30 % resource savings due to DPR

Evolutionary robotics and neuroscience

No description supplie

Design abstraction for autonomous adaptive hardware systems on FPGAs

Adaptive hardware is gaining importance with the emergence of more autonomous systems that must process large volumes of sensor data and react within tight deadlines. To support such computation within the constraints of embedded deployments, a blend of high throughput hardware processing and adaptive control is required. FPGAs offer an ideal platform for implementing such systems by virtue of their hardware flexibility and sensor interfacing capabilities. FPGA SoCs are specifically well suited offering capable embedded processors that are tightly coupled with a flexible high performance FPGA fabric. This paper explores existing work on adaptive hardware systems before proposing a general model and implementation approach tailored towards these modern FPGA architectures, concluding with pointers for research in this emerging field

Towards self-organized service-oriented multi-agent systems

The demand for large-scale systems running in complex and even chaotic environments requires the consideration of new paradigms and technologies that provide flexibility, robustness, agility and responsiveness. Multiagents systems is pointed out as a suitable approach to address this challenge by offering an alternative way to design control systems, based on the decentralization of control functions over distributed autonomous and cooperative entities. However, in spite of their enormous potential, they usually lack some aspects related to interoperability, optimization in decentralized structures and truly self-adaptation. This paper discusses a new perspective to engineer adaptive complex systems considering a 3-layer framework integrating several complementary paradigms and technologies. In a first step, it suggests the integration of multi-agent systems with service-oriented architectures to overcome the limitations of interoperability and smooth migration, followed by the use of technology enablers, such as cloud computing and wireless sensor networks, to provide a ubiquitous and reconfigurable environment. Finally, the resulted service-oriented multi-agent system should be enhanced with biologically inspired techniques, namely self-organization, to reach a truly robust, agile and adaptive system

FPGAs in Industrial Control Applications

The aim of this paper is to review the state-of-the-art of Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) technologies and their contribution to industrial control applications. Authors start by addressing various research fields which can exploit the advantages of FPGAs. The features of these devices are then presented, followed by their corresponding design tools. To illustrate the benefits of using FPGAs in the case of complex control applications, a sensorless motor controller has been treated. This controller is based on the Extended Kalman Filter. Its development has been made according to a dedicated design methodology, which is also discussed. The use of FPGAs to implement artificial intelligence-based industrial controllers is then briefly reviewed. The final section presents two short case studies of Neural Network control systems designs targeting FPGAs

Diagnosis of an EPS module

Dissertação apresentada na Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Engenharia Electrotécnica e ComputadoresThis thesis addresses and contextualizes the problem of diagnostic of an Evolvable Production System (EPS). An EPS is a complex and lively entity composed of intelligent modules that interact through bio-inspired mechanisms, to ensure high system availability and seamless reconfiguration. The actual economic situation together with the increasing demand of high quality and low priced customized products imposed a shift in the production policies of enterprises. Shop floors have to become more agile and flexible to accommodate the new production paradigms. Rather than selling products enterprises are establishing a trend of offering services to explore business opportunities. The new production paradigms, potentiated by the advances in Information Technologies (IT), especially in web related standards and technologies as well as the progressive acceptance of the multi-agent systems (MAS) concept and related technologies, envision collections of modules whose individual and collective function adapts and evolves ensuring the fitness and adequacy of the shop floor in tackling profitable but volatile business opportunities. Despite the richness of the interactions and the effort set in modelling them, their potential to favour fault propagation and interference, in these complex environments, has been ignored from a diagnostic point of view. With the increase of distributed and autonomous components that interact in the execution of processes current diagnostic approaches will soon be insufficient. While current system dynamics are complex and to a certain extent unpredictable the adoption of the next generation of approaches and technologies comes at the cost of a yet increased complexity.Whereas most of the research in such distributed industrial systems is focused in the study and establishment of control structures, the problem of diagnosis has been left relatively unattended. There are however significant open challenges in the diagnosis of such modular systems including: understanding fault propagation and ensuring scalability and co-evolution. This work provides an implementation of a state-of-the-art agent-based interaction-oriented architecture compliant with the EPS paradigm that supports the introduction of a new developed diagnostic algorithm that has the ability to cope with the modern manufacturing paradigm challenges and to provide diagnostic analysis that explores the network dimension of multi-agent systems

Self-Partial and Dynamic Reconfiguration Implementation for AES using FPGA

This paper addresses efficient hardware/software implementation approaches for the AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) algorithm and describes the design and performance testing algorithm for embedded system. Also, with the spread of reconfigurable hardware such as FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array) embedded cryptographic hardware became cost-effective. Nevertheless, it is worthy to note that nowadays, even hardwired cryptographic algorithms are not so safe. From another side, the self-reconfiguring platform is reported that enables an FPGA to dynamically reconfigure itself under the control of an embedded microprocessor. Hardware acceleration significantly increases the performance of embedded systems built on programmable logic. Allowing a FPGA-based MicroBlaze processor to self-select the coprocessors uses can help reduce area requirements and increase a system's versatility. The architecture proposed in this paper is an optimal hardware implementation algorithm and takes dynamic partially reconfigurable of FPGA. This implementation is good solution to preserve confidentiality and accessibility to the information in the numeric communication