RoboArch: A component-based tool proposal for developing hardware architecture for mobile robots

Abstract

This paper introduces a component-based tool proposal for developing hardware architecture for mobile robots at ESL (Electronic System-Level) based on reusable IP (Intellectual Property) cores. This tool, denominated RoboArch, provides a platform independent development environment where embedded systems are created in a visual environment from IP component libraries specified according to the IP-XACT XML (Extensible Markup Language) schema, where a component can be a softcore processor, a dedicated hardware module or a high level model described in a non-synthesizable code. The systems developed in this visual programming environment can be either simulated directly at ESL (Electronic System-Level) using external environments for stimulus generation and result monitoring or synthesized for a hardware description representation at RTL (Register Transfer Language), allowing its implementation on FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array).