A comparative analysis of a navigation platform designed in Arduino and FPGA

The paper carries out a comparative analysis of a fixed path navigation platform designed in both Arduino and FPGA in terms of accuracy, complexity and error percentage. The platform is designed using a rotation encoder as the distance estimation device with motors and drivers controlled by an overall controller which could either be a microcontroller or an FPGA. The rotation encoder used for both designs consists of a MOC7811 encoder IC, which translates number of pulses into distance required. Other common components are wheelchair motors and their corresponding drivers. The test device used is a normal wheelchair. The device was designed to move through three different paths with fixed paths between each room programmed into the controller. These paths were kept constant for both the Arduino microcontroller and the FPGA. The results were thoroughly analyzed for each controller and the observations recorded.