Evaluation of a locomotion algorithm for worm-like robots 
on FPGA-embedded processors

J. Gonzalez-Gomez, I. Gonzalez , F. Gomez-Arribas and E. Boemo

Computer Engineering School, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
{Juan.Gonzalez, Ivan.Gonzalez, Francisco.Gomez, Eduardo.Boemo}@uam.es

Abstract:

In this paper, a locomotion algorithm designed for an eight modules worm-like 
robot has been successfully tested on three different FPGA-embedded 
processors: MicroBlaze, PowerPC and LEON2. The locomotion of worm-like robots,
composed of a chain of equal linked modules, is achieved by means of
wave propagation that traverse the body of the worm. The time the robot needs 
to generate a new motion wave, also known as the gait recalculation time,
is the key to achieve an autonomous robot with real-time reactions. 
Algorithm execution time for four different architectures, as a function of
the total number of articulations of the robot, are presented. The results
show that a huge improvement of the gait recalculation time can be
achieved by using a float point unit. The performance achieved using the
LEON2 with FPU is 40 times better than LEON2 without FPU, using only 6% 
of additional resources.