A reconfigurable computing system for an autonomous sailboat

Abstract

This paper presents the computing infrastructure used in an autonomous unmanned small-scale sailboat. The system is based on a FPGA and includes custom designed interfaces for the various sensors and actuators used in the sailboat. The central processing unit is a 32-bit 50 MHz RISC microprocessor implemented as a soft IP core in the FPGA. The computing system runs uClinux, a simplified version of the popular Linux operating system. The usage of a reconfigurable platform enables a quick reconfiguration of the logic circuit implemented in the FPGA, facilitating the development stage and allowing a dynamic switch among different implementations, according to the navigation requirements and environmental conditions.