AHCI RESEARCH GROUP
Publications
Papers published in international journals,
proceedings of conferences, workshops and books.
OUR RESEARCH
Scientific Publications
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You can use the tag cloud to select only the papers dealing with specific research topics.
You can expand the Abstract, Links and BibTex record for each paper.
2022
Vitabile, Salvatore; Franchini, Silvia; Vassallo, Giorgio
An Optimized Architecture for CGA Operations and Its Application to a Simulated Robotic Arm Journal Article
In: Electronics (Switzerland), vol. 11, no. 21, 2022, ISSN: 2079-9292.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Application-specific processors, Clifford algebra, Computational geometry, Conformal geometric algebra, Embedded coprocessors, Field Programmable Gate Arrays, FPGA prototyping, Geometric algebra, grasping, human-like robotic arms, inverse kinematics, Robotics
@article{vitabileOptimizedArchitectureCGA2022,
title = {An Optimized Architecture for CGA Operations and Its Application to a Simulated Robotic Arm},
author = { Salvatore Vitabile and Silvia Franchini and Giorgio Vassallo},
doi = {10.3390/electronics11213508},
issn = {2079-9292},
year = {2022},
date = {2022-01-01},
journal = {Electronics (Switzerland)},
volume = {11},
number = {21},
abstract = {Conformal geometric algebra (CGA) is a new geometric computation tool that is attracting growing attention in many research fields, such as computer graphics, robotics, and computer vision. Regarding the robotic applications, new approaches based on CGA have been proposed to efficiently solve problems as the inverse kinematics and grasping of a robotic arm. The hardware acceleration of CGA operations is required to meet real-time performance requirements in embedded robotic platforms. In this paper, we present a novel embedded coprocessor for accelerating CGA operations in robotic tasks. Two robotic algorithms, namely, inverse kinematics and grasping of a human-arm-like kinematics chain, are used to prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The coprocessor natively supports the entire set of CGA operations including both basic operations (products, sums/differences, and unary operations) and complex operations as rigid body motion operations (reflections, rotations, translations, and dilations). The coprocessor prototype is implemented on the Xilinx ML510 development platform as a complete system-on-chip (SoC), integrating both a PowerPC processing core and a CGA coprocessing core on the same Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA chip. Experimental results show speedups of 78texttimes and 246texttimes for inverse kinematics and grasping algorithms, respectively, with respect to the execution on the PowerPC processor. textcopyright 2022 by the authors.},
keywords = {Application-specific processors, Clifford algebra, Computational geometry, Conformal geometric algebra, Embedded coprocessors, Field Programmable Gate Arrays, FPGA prototyping, Geometric algebra, grasping, human-like robotic arms, inverse kinematics, Robotics},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Conformal geometric algebra (CGA) is a new geometric computation tool that is attracting growing attention in many research fields, such as computer graphics, robotics, and computer vision. Regarding the robotic applications, new approaches based on CGA have been proposed to efficiently solve problems as the inverse kinematics and grasping of a robotic arm. The hardware acceleration of CGA operations is required to meet real-time performance requirements in embedded robotic platforms. In this paper, we present a novel embedded coprocessor for accelerating CGA operations in robotic tasks. Two robotic algorithms, namely, inverse kinematics and grasping of a human-arm-like kinematics chain, are used to prove the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The coprocessor natively supports the entire set of CGA operations including both basic operations (products, sums/differences, and unary operations) and complex operations as rigid body motion operations (reflections, rotations, translations, and dilations). The coprocessor prototype is implemented on the Xilinx ML510 development platform as a complete system-on-chip (SoC), integrating both a PowerPC processing core and a CGA coprocessing core on the same Xilinx Virtex-5 FPGA chip. Experimental results show speedups of 78texttimes and 246texttimes for inverse kinematics and grasping algorithms, respectively, with respect to the execution on the PowerPC processor. textcopyright 2022 by the authors.
2013
Franchini, Silvia; Gentile, Antonio; Sorbello, Filippo; Vassallo, Giorgio; Vitabile, Salvatore
Design and Implementation of an Embedded Coprocessor with Native Support for 5D, Quadruple-Based Clifford Algebra Journal Article
In: IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 62, no. 12, pp. 2366–2381, 2013, ISSN: 0018-9340.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Application-specific processors, Clifford algebra, Computational geometry, Computer graphics, Embedded coprocessors, Field Programmable Gate Arrays, FPGA prototyping, Geometric algebra, inverse kinematics, Motion capture, Raytracing, robotic arm, Robotics
@article{franchiniDesignImplementationEmbedded2013,
title = {Design and Implementation of an Embedded Coprocessor with Native Support for 5D, Quadruple-Based Clifford Algebra},
author = { Silvia Franchini and Antonio Gentile and Filippo Sorbello and Giorgio Vassallo and Salvatore Vitabile},
doi = {10.1109/TC.2012.225},
issn = {0018-9340},
year = {2013},
date = {2013-01-01},
journal = {IEEE Transactions on Computers},
volume = {62},
number = {12},
pages = {2366--2381},
abstract = {Geometric or Clifford algebra (CA) is a powerful mathematical tool that offers a natural and intuitive way to model geometric facts in a number of research fields, such as robotics, machine vision, and computer graphics. Operating in higher dimensional spaces, its practical use is hindered, however, by a significant computational cost, only partially addressed by dedicated software libraries and hardware/software codesigns. For low-dimensional algebras, several dedicated hardware accelerators and coprocessing architectures have been already proposed in the literature. This paper introduces the architecture of CliffordALU5, an embedded coprocessing core conceived for native execution of up to 5D CA operations. CliffordALU5 exploits a novel, hardware-oriented representation of the algebra elements that allows for faster execution of Clifford operations. In this paper, a prototype implementation of a complete system-on-chip (SOC) based on CliffordALU5 is presented. This prototype integrates an embedded processing soft-core based on the PowerPC 405 and a CliffordALU5 coprocessor on a Xilinx XUPV2P Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board. Test results show a 5texttimes average speedup for 4D Clifford products and a 4texttimes average speedup for 5D Clifford products against the same operations in Gaigen 2, a CA software library generator running on the general-purpose PowerPC processor. This paper also presents an execution analysis of three different applications in three diverse domains, namely, inverse kinematics of a robot, optical motion capture, and raytracing, showing an average speedup between 3texttimes and 4texttimes with respect to the baseline Gaigen 2 implementation. Finally, a multicore approach to higher dimensional CA based on CliffordALU5 is discussed. textcopyright 1968-2012 IEEE.},
keywords = {Application-specific processors, Clifford algebra, Computational geometry, Computer graphics, Embedded coprocessors, Field Programmable Gate Arrays, FPGA prototyping, Geometric algebra, inverse kinematics, Motion capture, Raytracing, robotic arm, Robotics},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Geometric or Clifford algebra (CA) is a powerful mathematical tool that offers a natural and intuitive way to model geometric facts in a number of research fields, such as robotics, machine vision, and computer graphics. Operating in higher dimensional spaces, its practical use is hindered, however, by a significant computational cost, only partially addressed by dedicated software libraries and hardware/software codesigns. For low-dimensional algebras, several dedicated hardware accelerators and coprocessing architectures have been already proposed in the literature. This paper introduces the architecture of CliffordALU5, an embedded coprocessing core conceived for native execution of up to 5D CA operations. CliffordALU5 exploits a novel, hardware-oriented representation of the algebra elements that allows for faster execution of Clifford operations. In this paper, a prototype implementation of a complete system-on-chip (SOC) based on CliffordALU5 is presented. This prototype integrates an embedded processing soft-core based on the PowerPC 405 and a CliffordALU5 coprocessor on a Xilinx XUPV2P Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) board. Test results show a 5texttimes average speedup for 4D Clifford products and a 4texttimes average speedup for 5D Clifford products against the same operations in Gaigen 2, a CA software library generator running on the general-purpose PowerPC processor. This paper also presents an execution analysis of three different applications in three diverse domains, namely, inverse kinematics of a robot, optical motion capture, and raytracing, showing an average speedup between 3texttimes and 4texttimes with respect to the baseline Gaigen 2 implementation. Finally, a multicore approach to higher dimensional CA based on CliffordALU5 is discussed. textcopyright 1968-2012 IEEE.