Integration of a Contextual Observation System in a Multi-Process Architecture for Autonomous Vehicles

We propose a software layered architecture for autonomous vehicles whose efficiency is driven by pull-based acquisition of sensor data. This multiprocess software architecture, to be embedded into the control loop of these vehicles, includes a Belief-Desire-Intention agent that can consistently assist the achievement of intentions. Since driving on roads implies huge dynamic considerations, we tackle both reactivity and context awareness considerations on the execution loop of the vehicle. While the proposed architecture gradually offers 4 levels of reactivity, from arch-reflex to the deep modification of the previously built execution plan, the observation module concurrently exploits noise filtering and introduces frequency control to allow symbolic feature extraction while both fuzzy and first order logic management are used to enforce consistency and certainty over the context information properties. The presented use-case, the daily delivery of a network of pharmacy offices by an autonomous vehicle taking into account contextual (spatio-temporal) traffic features, shows the efficiency and the modularity of the architecture, as well as the scalability of the reaction levels

Virtual prototyping of pressure driven microfluidic systems with SystemC-AMS extensions

The design of "Lab on a Chip" microfluidic devices is, typically, preceded by a long and costly period of prototyping stages in which the system is gradually refined by an iterative process, involving the manufacturing of a physical prototype and the making of a lot of laboratory experiments. In this scenario, a virtual prototyping framework which allows the emulation of the behavior of the complete system is greatly welcome. This paper presents such a framework and details a virtual prototyping methodology able to soundly handle microfluidic behavior based on SystemC-AMS extensions. The use of these extensions will permit the communication of the developed microfluidic models with external digital or mixed signal devices. This allows the emulation of the whole Lab on a Chip system as it usually includes a digital control and a mixed-signal reading environment. Moreover, as SystemC-AMS is also being extended to cover other physical domains within the CATRENE CA701 project, interactions with these domains will be possible, for example, with electromechanical or optical parts, should they be part of the system. The presented extensions that can manage the modeling of a micro-fluidic system are detailed. Two approaches have been selected: to model the fluid analytically based on the Poiseuille flow theory and to model the fluid numerically following the SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) approach. Both modeling techniques are, by now, encapsulated under the TDF (Timed Data Flow) MoC (Model of Computation) of SystemC-AMS.This work has been supported by CATRENE CA701H-INCEPTION Projec

Programmable routers for efficient mapping of applications onto NoC-based MPSoCs

International audienceWe extend the state-of-the-art DSPIN network-on-chip architecture by defining programmable NoC routers that can establish effective static scheduling and routing of data packets as demanded by the application. Router programs are the result of a general compilation process which targets the NoC and the computing cores altogether. The objective is to reduce NoC contentions, improving speed and timing predictability. We consider the range of applications of such an approach and provide results on two of them (a simple embedded controller and an FFT)

WiNoCoD : Un réseau d'interconnexion hiérarchique RF pour les MPSoC

International audienceLa multiplication du nombre de cœurs de calcul présents sur les puces va de pair avec une augmentation des besoins en communication. C'est pour palier à ce problème que nous présentons dans cette article un réseau d'interconnexion sur puce utilisant la RF. Nous présentons les raisons du choix de la RF par rapport aux autres nouvelles technologies du domaine que sont l'optique et la 3D, l'architecture détaillée de ce réseau et d'une puce le mettant en œuvre ainsi que l'évaluation de sa faisabilité et de ses performances. Un des avantages potentiels de ce réseau d'interconnexion RF est la possibilité de faire du broadcast à faible coût, ce qui ouvre de nouvelles perspectives notamment en terme de gestion de la cohérence mémoire