Has anyone developed robotics controller using the Spartan 2 board?
I have a Biped kit and I am starting out to put together a controller kit for it.
Also connecting servo and managing power supplies… the board is 3 volt and the servos are at least 6 volt so i need to manage this supply.
I can program via USB to RS232.
I am in Windows OS.
Help and thoughts would be appreciated.
Regards
/THX
There’s a [robot control library at [OpenCores, although the status on that project is blank, so it might be incomplete.
I’m not sure which Spartan 2 board you’re talking about. Sparkfun carries a Spartan 3E board and a Cyclone 2 board, but no Spartan 2 board. At any rate; you probably don’t want to use the same voltage line to drive your actuators that you use to power your digital logic.](http://www.opencores.org/)](Overview :: Robot Control Library :: OpenCores)
Hi,
I’ve done some FPGA work (with a Spartan 3 board) and I’ve built some robots.
I sometimes think about wrapping a robot around an FPGA but, as a hobbyist, this is tough to justify. There are lots of good embedded CPU’s - Arm’s, PIC’s, AVR’s, 8051’s… with ready software and lots of people to help you.
If you use an FPGA, you will probably end up creating your own CPU with it. You will have the advantage of being able to create your own cpu peripherals e.g. many timers, and pwm channels. On the down side, you will have no software and no tools. I built an FPGA cpu, it was a lot of fun, but then I had to write a lot of system software (assembler, compiler, loader) to go with it.
The other possibility is to use the FPGA to make something much simpler (i.e. not a cpu), say something which more directly ties sensors to actuators, but still I feel it would be easier to write software on an existing CPU.
Lastly, if you do decide to follow the FPGA cpu route, please see my website : sites.google.com/site/BunchOfProjects. The CPU section has a lot of details.
Good luck,
Michael Jamet
FPGA-technology is now so easy to use that you don’t have to create your own processor and stuff. If you choose to use Altera you could just pop in one of those Nios-processors, along with x number of timers and y number of PWM-channels and shoot it down to the chip. Then use their own compiler/debugger to write firmware for it.
The same goes for Xilinx, with their Microblaze, although I would think Altera is a little easier if you’re completely new.
Unless you do very demanding stuff in your robot, I really see no point using an FPGA. You can do a lot with an ARM7, or even an AVR.
I’ve built a robot around a Spartan 3, it uses the Microblaze softcore. Its very flexible as you can make all your servo controller, pwn, motor drivers ect in VHDL, and have them memory mapped to the soft core.
You can find the Xilinx tools online for windows too (ISE,EDK etc)
Got the start of some documentation here, which may give you some ideas!
If you want to leverage the arduino community, you could try out one of the [AVR soft cores provided for free on OpenCores:
Make sure you’re doing more than just emulating an MCU in the FPGA. Otherwise you’re not getting your money’s worth.](opencores.com - This website is for sale! - opencores Resources and Information.)
Sorry, was a typo… I meant Spartan 3 
Thanks for the feedback.
My project is looking like a hexapod with at least maybe 4 servos per leg + gyro, acc,. sensors and maybe cam and WiFi for remote…
I am currently looking at leg design and body design… I am thinking to design it around a typical spider.
Thanks for the core pointer I will take a look.
Regards
THX