Emotion on FPGA: Model driven approach

Implementation of intelligent and bio-inspired algorithms in industrial and real applications is arduous, time consuming and costly; in addition, many aspects of system from high level behavior of algorithm to energy consumption of targeted system must be considered simultaneously in the design process. Advancement of hardware platforms such as DSPs, FPGAs and ASICs in recent years has made it increasingly possible to implement computationally complex intelligent systems; on the other hand, however, the design and testing costs of these systems are high. Reusability and extendibility features of the developed models can decrease the total cost and time-to-market of an intelligent system. In this work, model driven development approach is utilized for implementation of emotional learning as a bio-inspired algorithm for embedded purposes. Recent studies show that emotion is a mechanism for fast decision making in human and other animals, and can be assumed as an expert system. Mathematical models have been developed for describing emotion in mammals from cognitive studies. Here brain emotional based learning intelligent controller (BELBIC), which is based on mammalian middle brain, is designed and implemented on FPGA and the obtained embedded emotional controller (E-BELBIC) is utilized for controlling real laboratorial overhead traveling crane in model-free and embedded manner. Short time-to-market, easy testing and error handling, separating concerns, improving reusability and extendibility of obtained models in similar applications are some benefits of the model driven development methodology.