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ROBOTCORE RTPS

An FPGA implementation of DDS-RTPS for Real-Time Robotics Networking

ROBOTCORE® RTPS is an expertly crafted FPGA robot core (also known as IP core) that implements in hardware the Real-Time Publish Subscribe (RTPS) protocol, the communication backbone of the Data Distribution Service (DDS), and by extension, ROS 2. ROBOTCORE® RTPS interoperates with popular DDS implementations and its hardware design is central to facilitating fast, real-time, efficient networking data distribution within DDS and ROS 2's sophisticated ecosystem, providing a robust foundation for advanced robotic communications. With the capability to send or receive small DDS payloads in about 1.5 microseconds in off-the-shelf FPGAs, it achieves a remarkable 26x speedup on average over traditional CPU software implementations of RTPS and DDS.

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ROBOTCORE RTPS

Accelerate your robot networking.
Lightspeed RTPS and DDS communications

ROBOTCORE® RTPS implements the RTPS protocol and parts of the DDS communication middleware. RTPS and DDS are vital for the networking communications in robotics and industrial automation. DDS, or Data Distribution Service, acts like a communication 'databus', a system that connects and transfers data between robotic components over the network (unlike a database that stores data). RTPS, standing for Real-Time Publish Subscribe, is a protocol that defines the DDS communication middleware Interoperability Wire Protocol (OMG's DDSI-RTPS™). Integral to ROS 2, RTPS makes data sharing in robotics more efficient. ROBOTCORE® RTPS provides a hardware implementation of RTPS and DDS that excels in sending or receiving data fast, taking about 3 microseconds for small packets round-trip, making it 26 times faster than traditional CPU implementations. It's designed to work seamlessly with popular DDS implementations, enhancing its ability to distribute data quickly and reliably in complex robotic systems.

Benchmarks

Supported
hardware solutions

ROBOTCORE® RTPS supports the most popular FPGA silicon vendors and hardware acceleration solutions, including development kits to build robots with hardware acceleration and ROS.

ROBOTCORE® Robotic Processing Unit
Intel's Agilex 9
Intel's Agilex 7
Intel's Agilex 5
Intel's Agilex 3
AMD's Zynq 7000
AMD's Zynq Ultrascale+
AMD's Versal
Microchip's PolarFire
Intel's Agilex® 7 FPGA F-Series FPGA
AMD's KR260
AMD's ZCU102
Microchip's PolarFire Icicle Kit

Use
cases

ROBOTCORE® RTPS is particularly advantageous in scenarios where high-speed and reliable communication is paramount. It finds its ideal use in:

Industrial Automation
For fast and efficient communication between robotic components in manufacturing and assembly lines.

Teleoperation Systems
Facilitating smooth and responsive control of remotely operated robots.

Autonomous Vehicles
To ensure rapid data exchange for real-time decision-making in autonomous driving systems.

Research and Development
Providing a robust platform for developing and testing advanced robotic systems.

Faster ROS networking communications
with ROBOTCORE® RTPS

ROBOTCORE® RTPS significantly enhances the networking architecture of robotic systems, especially those utilizing ROS 2, by offering accelerated RTPS and DDS networking capabilities. It can be used alone for ultra-fast DDS interactions or combined with other robot cores to interoperate with popular robotic operating systems. Its integration into these popular robot middlewares enables single-digit microsecond-level communication speeds, drastically improving real-time data processing and responsiveness when combined with ROBOTCORE® UDP/IP and ROBOTCORE® ROS 2. All while delivering the common ROS development flow when combined with ROBOTCORE® Framework.

ROBOTCORE UDP/IP ROBOTCORE ROS 2

Faster
Deterministic

ROBOTCORE® RTPS delivers absolute determinism via hardware when combined with ROBOTCORE® ROS 2 and ROBOTCORE® UDP/IP. Compared to software-based solutions, it ensures that the communication latency is lower and that remains always the same, regardless of the load of the system. Crucial for real-time robotic systems and solving major bottlenecks in robotic communications[1],[2],[3],[4].

  1. Gutiérrez, C. S. V., Juan, L. U. S., Ugarte, I. Z., & Mayoral-Vilches, V. (2018). Linux communications: an evaluation of the Linux communication stack for real-time robotic applications. arXiv preprint arXiv:1808.10821.
  2. Gutiérrez, C. S. V., Juan, L. U. S., Ugarte, I. Z., & Mayoral-Vilches, V. (2018). Towards a distributed and real-time framework for robots: Evaluation of ROS 2.0 communications for real-time robotic applications. arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.02595.
  3. Gutiérrez, C. S. V., Juan, L. U. S., Ugarte, I. Z., & Mayoral-Vilches, V. (2018). Time-sensitive networking for robotics. arXiv preprint arXiv:1804.07643.
  4. Gutiérrez, C. S. V., Juan, L. U. S., Ugarte, I. Z., Goenaga, I. M., Kirschgens, L. A., & Mayoral-Vilches, V. (2018). Time synchronization in modular collaborative robots. arXiv preprint arXiv:1809.07295.

100-40000x better
than other IP cores

ROBOTCORE® RTPS outperforms other IP core solution combinations delivering DDS and RTPS capabilities, including both deployments in hard- and soft-cores[5].

  1. eProsima. Safe DDS - Kria KR260 ROS 2 Demo. Assuming RTT values.

Benchmarks

(see ROBOTCORE® ROS 2 for more)

LATENCY

Latency for small DDS payloads (us)
(one-way maximum latency measured after 10K samples and while sending small DDS payloads with ROBOTCORE RTPS and ROBOTCORE UDP/IP running in an FPGA@156MHz. Other fmax values may lead to better results.)

1.5 us

ROUND-TRIP-TIME (RTT)

RTT latency for small DDS payloads (us)
(round-trip maximum latency measured after 10K samples and while sending small DDS payloads with ROBOTCORE RTPS and ROBOTCORE UDP/IP running in an FPGA@156MHz. Other fmax values may lead to better results.)

3 us

SPEEDUP

Speedup when compared to traditional CPUs
(considering average latency measurements)

26x

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