Category Archive for : ‘Open Source’

Main Characteristics

This is the second article of a series, which aim is a feasibility study for a modular system composed of the main control board based on Xilinx ZYNQ Ultrascale+ and servo satellite motor drives based on Xilinx ZYNQ-7000. The objective of the system is to control a robot composed of multiple joints. The article’s target is an automation of a prostate biopsy to assist doctors during medical procedures. The biopsy is executed by driving one mechanical positioner composed of 6 Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSM) motors and multiple joints

INTRODUCTION

This is the first article of a series, about the study of a system to control a medical robot for biopsy automation composed of multiple joints. The main control board runs on ZYNQ Ultrascale+ whereas the servo satellite motor drives run on ZYNQ-7000.

Specifically, the satellite boards control a Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (PMSM) each. Specifically, each motor controls the steering of the needle.

Figure 1 shows its rough principle.

Although the picture shows 6 motors, the system should be able to scale up to 24.

The main characteristics of the modular system are:

Firstly,

Can Bluetooth LE and Hybrid Applications exist together? Yes! In this article, we provide an example of a hybrid application and Bluetooth Low Energy service, starting with the description of what a hybrid application is, then ending with the complete example.

Let’s start by providing some definitions.

What is a hybrid application?

A hybrid application is a software that combines elements of both web applications and native apps. It is simply a web app that you put into a native app shell. You can download it from the app store (Google Play for

Reading GPS Coordinates through Pynq-z2

Introduction

In this tutorial, we will show how to create a custom hardware design with Xilinx’s DPU IP provided in the Vitis AI toolchain. Specifically, you can use this approach with any custom design which is Vivado compatible, and you can extend it to infer AI models.

What is the DPU IP

The Xilinx® Deep Learning Processor Unit (DPU) is a programmable engine dedicated for convolutional neural network. The unit contains register configure module, data controller module, and convolution computing module. There is a specialized instruction set for DPU, which enables DPU to

Introduction

Welcome to part 2 of the previous article about PWM signals and PYNQ! In this article, we will show what is a servo motor and how to control a servo motor with the previous design of the PWM on the PYNQ framework, with a simple “recipe”. If you have missed the previous article, you can find it here!

So, let’s start!

What is a Servo Motor

A Servo Motor is a rotary actuator or linear actuator that allows for precise control of angular or linear position, velocity, and acceleration. Servomotors are used in applications such as

In this article, we propose a new demo that combines the potentialities of the PYNQ Z2 with the wireless communication of Bluetooth Low Energy (aka BLE). This combination paves the way for the creation of new and amazing applications.

In this article we will also focus on creating a simple BLE Server on the PYNQ Z2 and to do this we use the Bluetooth capabilities of the ESP-32 module.

Enjoy the reading 😉

The Bluetooth Module

We have chosen to use the ESP-32 WROOM 32 module for this project. Thanks to its low costs

Introduction

One of the main problems of embedded systems is the external communication, in particular for the FPGAs: you need in every specific situation a different protocol and different strategies for inter-communication with a host system. That’s why the USB protocol is useful and, in particular, for a complex device such as the FPGA. In this article, we will define a simple but robust approach for designing an FPGA as a USB Device.

The USB system

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry-standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors, and protocols for connection, communication, and

Introduction

In this article we aim to introduce a possible solution for solving the 3D reconstruction problem. We will take advantage of the 3D Vision to reconstruct the object starting from a set Point Cloud which represents different views of the object. Firstly, we will start by detailing the difference between standard computer vision (2D) and 3D vision.

Secondly, we will detail the different stages of reconstruction, explaining a little bit about the algorithm used and different possible implementation choices. As a reference library, we are going to use the Point Cloud

Introduction

3D printing is a very interesting topic for every startup and company, both for the creation of proof of concept, both for very specific unusual parts, such as 3d hair printing.

In our company, we use the 3D printer several times to print the most varied things: we create and print custom cases for boards, joints for robotic parts, humanoid robot parts, gadgets, etc … For example, take a look at our article about an IoT application with a custom case: https://www.makarenalabs.com/nebul-iot-a-simple-embedded-smart-device-for-greenhouse/

We also use different materials for different purposes, for example:

PETG