EURASIP Journal on Applied Signal Processing 
Volume 2003 (2003), Issue 6, Pages 594-602
doi:10.1155/S1110865703301040

Design and Implementation of Digital Linear Control Systems on Reconfigurable Hardware

Marcus Bednara,1 Klaus Danne,2 Markus Deppe,3 Oliver Oberschelp,3 Frank Slomka,4 and Jürgen Teich1

 1Department of Computer Sciences 12, Hardware-Software-Co-Design, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen, Erlangen D-91058, Germany
2Heinz Nixdorf Institute, University of Paderborn, Paderborn D-33102, Germany
3Mechatronic Laboratory Paderborn (MLaP), University of Paderborn, Paderborn D-33098, Germany
4Department of Computer Science, Embedded Hardware/Software Systems Group, Carl von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg D-26111, Germany
Received 14 March 2002; Revised 15 October 2002

Abstract

The implementation of large linear control systems requires a high amount of digital signal processing. Here, we show that reconfigurable hardware allows the design of fast yet flexible control systems. After discussing the basic concepts for the design and implementation of digital controllers for mechatronic systems, a new general and automated design flow starting from a system of differential equations to application-specific hardware implementation is presented. The advances of reconfigurable hardware as a target technology for linear controllers is discussed. In a case study, we compare the new hardware approach for implementing linear controllers with a software implementation.