FPGA implementation of dynamic run-time behavior reconfiguration in robots

Using a single robot for multiple operations has been a significant problem for researchers in Robotics since available space, cost, and power consumption are constraints to the increasing number of behaviors on a robot. An efficient technique to implement multiple behaviors in robots using FPGA based partial reconfigurable hardware is presented in this paper. Robots built using reconfigurable FPGAs can have their functionalities modified at run-time without completely taking the robot off-line. Resource efficiency increases because only the modules corresponding to the current behavior are implemented in the FPGA while inactive modules are stored in an external memory. The approach is validated through a case study where teams of robots are configured to meet application specific requirements and the run-time behaviors of these robots are modified dynamically using Xilinx Virtex-II Pro FPGAs.