An FPGA based approach to increased flexibility, modularity and integration of low level control in robotics research

One of the major costs and inhibitors to practical robotics research is the time required for the creation of the embedded systems that implement the discrete event control in experimental robot systems. Using a standardized system architecture can reduce this time, but is often not feasible due to the rapidly varying requirements present in robotics research, and the considerable cost associated with implementing a full-blown standard. This often results in short-term ad-hoc solutions with low reusability and therefore high long-term cost to robotics labs. By utilizing the flexibility offered by reconfigurable electronics, in the form of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), we have arrived at an architecture for low-level control, which is flexible enough to bridge the traditional gaps between size, performance, topology, reusability, high-level integration, and ease of use. Several iterations, have led us to our current implementations: TosNet, which is optimized toward rapid prototyping in experimental modular robotics, and μTosNet, which has been optimized for simpler experiments and teaching. In this paper we present the overall concept and its background, as well as the two TosNet frameworks, examples of applications, and thoughts on dissemination and future work.