Implementation of FlexRay communication controller protocol with application to a robot system

FlexRay is a new standard of network communication system which provides a high speed serial communication, time triggered bus and fault tolerant communication between electronic devices for future automotive applications. FlexRay communication controller (CC) is the core of the FlexRay protocol specification. In this paper, we first design the FlexRay CC protocol specification and function parts using SDL (Specification and Description Language). Then, the system is re-designed using Verilog HDL based on the SDL source. The FlexRay CC system was synthesized using Samsung 0.35 μm technology. It is shown that the designed system can operate in the frequency range above 80 MHz. In addition, to show the validity of the designed FlexRay system, the FlexRay system is combined with sound source localization system in Robot applications. The combined system is implemented using ALTERA Excalibur ARM EPXA4F672C3. It is shown that the implemented system operates successfully.