The complex multi-axis computing requirements highlight the scalability and operational efficiency advantages of FPGAs, and MCUs running on nodes will be weak when dealing with such high-efficiency requirements. How to make full use of the advantages of high efficiency and high scalability has become the key point for FPGA to break through in the three-party robot market of MCU and DSP.

In the last issue, when it came to the development of MCUs in the robotics industry, MCUs are currently the most used in industrial robots and service robots. With every step of the automation upgrade in the industrial field, the computing efficiency required by robots has also increased. In addition to providing accurate motor control, robots also need flexibility and scalability.

Obviously, FPGA manufacturers will not let MCUs rely on the dividends of motor control to boldly reap the robotics market. At present, the development trend of industrial robots is multi-axis and collaborative. This flexibility and scalability requirement is that the robot can perform a variety of precise and complex anthropomorphic movements. Under this development trend, the number of motors and axes of industrial robots must be increased. When one of the shafts is rotated to a specific angle, the shafts of the same connection system must also be rotated to the corresponding correct angle. Under this requirement, the matching and coordination between different systems becomes particularly important.

FPGAs can be applied to small nodes with decentralized control, and can also be applied to more efficient FPGASOCs with large nodes. The most obvious advantage of the FPGA control system is that the driving response time will be greatly shortened, which will greatly improve the running speed of the entire system. The complex multi-axis computing requirements highlight the scalability and operational efficiency advantages of FPGAs, and MCUs running on nodes will be weak when dealing with such high-efficiency requirements. Although DSP has higher processing efficiency, it still gives FPGA some breathing room for expansion. How to make full use of the advantages of high efficiency and high scalability has become the key point for FPGA to break through in the three-party robot market of MCU and DSP.

Robot FPGA Efficient Operation Control Application

This design with full-scale robot control can be seen from the VersalAIEdge designed by Xilinx based on Artix-7FPGA and Zynq-7000SoC.

From the Artix-7FPGA's point of view, it offers a high-performance power-per-watt structure (about 50%), transceiver wire-speed, DSP processing power, and AMS integration. 215K logic cells, AXIIP and analog mixed-signal integration give the system a sufficiently high level of programmable integration.

The Zynq-7000 is a single-core ARMCortex-A9 processor paired with 28nm Artix-7 programmable logic, providing 6. 25gb -ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb -ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic /" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title= "25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb model">25gb-ic/" title="25gb Model > 25gb/s transceiver, which not only controls costs, but also optimizes system integration for industrial applications such as motor control and embedded vision.

Robotic control based on the above components, VersalAIEdge, can process metadata from visual and non-visual sensors to enable low-latency motor control and deterministic networking for synchronization of the entire system. For robots that require mobility, action planning can be accelerated to meet navigation needs. Through the parallel processing of the control loop, the number of scalable motion axes is precisely controlled, and it has high scalability in multi-axis motion.

Another FPGA manufacturer, Altera, is not only Xilinx, but also uses 28/20nm FPGA to enter the robot control market. Based on FPGA and FPGASOC design, in addition to motion control, AQV214H sensor bus management, camera bus management, including HMI, etc. Reduce physical size and power consumption through high-level integration. This control seems to be more reflective of the robot's intelligence and adaptability.

Machine Vision FPGA Scalable Applications

FPGA has powerful parallel operation function, which can not only meet the needs of multi-axis robot motion, but also realize the flexible configuration of machine vision system with high flexibility. Lattice is such a strategy. Although lattice's FPGA also involves multi-axis motor control, it is mainly used for machine vision.

The inherent programmability of FPGAs enables them to support a variety of industrial communication protocols and makes FPGAs a good choice for expanding communications. From the perspective of the ECP5 processor board, its input and output boards can be combined and matched to connect to a variety of image sensors and displays, maximizing flexible connectivity.

write at the end

It is not difficult to see that FPGAs have played a considerable role in the robotics industry by relying on high efficiency and scalability. Whether relying on efficient processing power to seize the share of motor control from MCU, or expanding into the active confrontation of machine vision and DSP, FPGA and MCU in the robot market, DSP can be said to be uncompromising and undercurrent. After all, no one wants to be suppressed in this big market.