Evaluating Rapid Application Development with Python for Heterogeneous Processor-based FPGAs

As modern FPGAs evolve to include more het- erogeneous processing elements, such as ARM cores, it makes sense to consider these devices as processors first and FPGA accelerators second. As such, the conventional FPGA develop- ment environment must also adapt to support more software- like programming functionality. While high-level synthesis tools can help reduce FPGA development time, there still remains a large expertise gap in order to realize highly performing implementations. At a system-level the skill set necessary to integrate multiple custom IP hardware cores, interconnects, memory interfaces, and now heterogeneous processing elements is complex. Rather than drive FPGA development from the hardware up, we consider the impact of leveraging Python to ac- celerate application development. Python offers highly optimized libraries from an incredibly large developer community, yet is limited to the performance of the hardware system. In this work we evaluate the impact of using PYNQ, a Python development environment for application development on the Xilinx Zynq devices, the performance implications, and bottlenecks associated with it. We compare our results against existing C-based and hand-coded implementations to better understand if Python can be the glue that binds together software and hardware developers.Comment: To appear in 2017 IEEE 25th Annual International Symposium on Field-Programmable Custom Computing Machines (FCCM'17

Open source hardware based sensor platform suitable for human gait identification

Most initiatives about embedded sensing capabilities in computational systems lead to de- vise an ad hoc sensor platform, usually poorly reusable, as a first stage to prepare a data corpus or production prototype. In this paper, an open source hardware platform for sensing is described. This platform was intended to be used in data acquisition for gait identification, and is designed in a way general enough so many other projects could reuse the design to accelerate prototyping. The platform is based on popular open source hardware and software like Arduino and Raspberry Pi using well known languages and libraries. Some experimental results about the throughput of the overall system are reported showing the feasibility of acquiring data from up to 6 sensors with a sampling frequency no less than 118 Hz

PORTING OF FREERTOS ON A PYTHON VIRTUAL MACHINE FOR EMBEDDED AND IOT DEVICES

The fourth industrial revolution, The Industry 4.0, puts emphasis on the need of “Smart” and “Connected” objects through the use of services provided by Internet of Things, cyber-physical systems and cloud computing to optimize the cost, development time and remote connectivity. Development of highly scalable and flexible IoT applications is the need of time. These solutions require connectivity, less development time, time-to-market and at the same time offers a high performance and great reliability. Zerynth, a small company, provides its full stack for IoT solutions. Zerynth Virtual Machine is the core component among other components in stack which allow the programmers to code in python or hybrid C/Python coding with multithreaded Real Time OS with negligible memory footprint. The Python layer, Application Layer, is totally agnostic of underlying RTOS and hardware abstraction layer. This layered software architecture of Zerynth VM makes it totally compatible with new Industry 4.0 standard. The Hardware abstraction layer, VHAL, abstracts the hardware features of supported MCU and its peripherals while RTOS layer, VOSAL, uses the features of underlying Real Time OS. Zerynth VM can be ported with different Real Time OS and various hardware platforms depending upon the application’s cost, features and other relevant parameters. Configuring Kinetis MCU (MK64FN1M0VDC12) with existing VM became the first objective of my thesis. This configuration covers from scratch the clock, boot loading and peripheral support. Since previous version of Zerynth VM had a support of only Chibi2 OS which has certain dependency on the hardware layer underneath so this became another objective to separate the Chibi2 OS from VHAL layer for total independence. Finally, Porting of FreeRTOS on Zerynth VM with Hexiwear MCU as target board could a make a room for another RTOS hence enhancing the features and support of currently available VM. This thesis report describes all porting steps, procedures and testing methodologies starting from configuring a new hardware platform Hexiwear to FreeRTOS porting on Zerynth V

Kinisi: A Platform for Autonomizing Off-Road Vehicles

This project proposed a modular system that would autonomize off-road vehicles while retaining full manual operability. This MQP team designed and developed a Level 3 autonomous vehicle prototype using an SAE Baja vehicle outfitted with actuators and exteroceptive sensors. At the end of the project, the vehicle had a drive-by-wire system, could localize itself using sensors, generate a map of its surroundings, and plan a path to follow a desired trajectory. Given a map, the vehicle could traverse a series of obstacles in an enclosed environment. The long- term goal is to alter the software system to make it modular and operate in real-time, so the vehicle can autonomously navigate off-road terrain to rescue and aid a distressed individual

Design of a Robotics DSL

Our MQP focused on building a domain specific language to be used with Neuron Robotics\u27 flagship product, the DyIO. Our DSL, Fez, is developed in Ruby and ANTLR and interacts with Neuron Robotics Java libraries as a fa231ade. We define a class hierarchy of the DyIO, abstractions for common devices that can be connected, and functionality for such devices. We develop a grammar and parser for our DSL which translates Fez to Ruby and execute the resulting code interactively. Fez is a fully functional language that properly translates all supported statements into Ruby. It was designed to somewhat mirror writing English as opposed to writing in a programming language. The main interface to Fez is a Read-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL) and it is run in a terminal window

Development of a System Architecture for Unmanned Systems Across Multiple Domains

In the unmanned systems industry, there is no common standard for systems components, connections and relations. Such a standard is never likely to exist. Needless to say, a system needs to have the components that are required for the application, however, it is possible to abstract the common functionality out of an individual implementation. This thesis presents a universal unmanned systems architecture that collects all of the common features of an unmanned system and presents them as a set of packages and libraries that can be used in any domain of unmanned system operation. The research and design of the universal architecture results in a well-defined architecture that can be used and implemented on any unmanned system. The AUVSI student competitions are specifically analyzed and it is shown how this universal architecture can be applied to the challenges posed by the competitions in different domains

Designing and Composing for Interdependent Collaborative Performance with Physics-Based Virtual Instruments

Interdependent collaboration is a system of live musical performance in which performers can directly manipulate each other’s musical outcomes. While most collaborative musical systems implement electronic communication channels between players that allow for parameter mappings, remote transmissions of actions and intentions, or exchanges of musical fragments, they interrupt the energy continuum between gesture and sound, breaking our cognitive representation of gesture to sound dynamics. Physics-based virtual instruments allow for acoustically and physically plausible behaviors that are related to (and can be extended beyond) our experience of the physical world. They inherently maintain and respect a representation of the gesture to sound energy continuum. This research explores the design and implementation of custom physics-based virtual instruments for realtime interdependent collaborative performance. It leverages the inherently physically plausible behaviors of physics-based models to create dynamic, nuanced, and expressive interconnections between performers. Design considerations, criteria, and frameworks are distilled from the literature in order to develop three new physics-based virtual instruments and associated compositions intended for dissemination and live performance by the electronic music and instrumental music communities. Conceptual, technical, and artistic details and challenges are described, and reflections and evaluations by the composer-designer and performers are documented

An Integrated Camera and Radar on-Robot System for Human Robot Collaboration

The increased demand for collaborative tasks between humans and robots has caused an upsurge in newer sensor technologies to detect, locate, track, and monitor workers in a robot workspace. The challenge is to balance the accuracy, cost, and responsiveness of the system to maximize the safety of the worker. This work presents a sensor system that combines six 60GHz radar modules and six cameras to accurately track the location and speed of the workers in all 360 degrees around the robot. While the radar is tuned to identify moving targets, the cameras perform pose detection to evaluate the humans in the workspace and when fused, provide 4D pose estimates: 3D location and velocity. A custom PCB and enclosure is designed for it and it is mounted to the end-effector of a UR-10 robot. This system performs all of its computation on an Nvidia AGX Xavier for offline processing which allows it to be mounted to a mobile robot for outdoor use. Lastly, this system was evaluated for accuracy in human detection as well as accuracy in velocity measurements through numerous static and dynamic scenarios for the robot, the human, and both combined

Intrusion Detection System based on time related features and Machine Learning

The analysis of the behavior of network communications over time allows the extraction of statistical features capable of characterizing the network traffic flows. These features can be used to create an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) that can automatically classify network traffic. But introducing an IDS into a network changes the latency of its communications. From a different viewpoint it is possible to analyze the latencies of a network to try to identifying the presence or absence of the IDS. The proposed method can be used to extract a set of phisical or time related features that characterize the communication behavior of an Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure. For example the number of packets sent every 5 minutes. Then these features can help identify anomalies or cyber attacks. For example a jamming of the radio channel. This method does not necessarily take into account the content of the network packet and therefore can also be used on encrypted connections where is impossible to carry out a Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) analysis

Language Design for Reactive Systems: On Modal Models, Time, and Object Orientation in Lingua Franca and SCCharts

Reactive systems play a crucial role in the embedded domain. They continuously interact with their environment, handle concurrent operations, and are commonly expected to provide deterministic behavior to enable application in safety-critical systems. In this context, language design is a key aspect, since carefully tailored language constructs can aid in addressing the challenges faced in this domain, as illustrated by the various concurrency models that prevent the known pitfalls of regular threads. Today, many languages exist in this domain and often provide unique characteristics that make them specifically fit for certain use cases. This thesis evolves around two distinctive languages: the actor-oriented polyglot coordination language Lingua Franca and the synchronous statecharts dialect SCCharts. While they take different approaches in providing reactive modeling capabilities, they share clear similarities in their semantics and complement each other in design principles. This thesis analyzes and compares key design aspects in the context of these two languages. For three particularly relevant concepts, it provides and evaluates lean and seamless language extensions that are carefully aligned with the fundamental principles of the underlying language. Specifically, Lingua Franca is extended toward coordinating modal behavior, while SCCharts receives a timed automaton notation with an efficient execution model using dynamic ticks and an extension toward the object-oriented modeling paradigm