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ee:hydrophones:start [2016/11/03 12:43] James Irwin |
ee:hydrophones:start [2018/01/24 20:30] Ryan Summers |
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====== Hydrophones ====== | ====== Hydrophones ====== | ||
- | We use our hydrophones to locate the pinger in the pool, and also for localizing ourselves within the pool. | + | We use our hydrophones to locate the pinger in the pool, which can be utilized for localization purposes. |
- | {{ :ee:hydrophones:hydrophone_datasheet.pdf | Hydrophone Datasheet}} \\ | + | |
- | {{ :ee:hydrophones:pinger_datasheet.pdf | Pinger Datasheet}} | + | |
- | ===== Hydrophone Characteristics ===== | ||
+ | ===== Introduction ===== | ||
+ | The purpose of this page is to describe how the arrival times are acquired on a number of hydrophone channels. This documentation does //not// describe how that information is turned into bearings or how it is used in localization. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The arrival time calculations tend to be complicated by noise, which means that it is not possible to trivially detect rising edges. The ping can be thought of as an identical signal arriving slightly later on each of the hydrophones. In order to accurately calculate the time differences between each signal, a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-correlation|cross correlation]] is used. A cross correlation essentially slides one signal over the top of another, and at the point where the signals maximally overlap, the amount of shifting needed is equal to the time delay of the signal. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Further simplifications can be applied to the problem as well. By ensuring that the hydrophones are close enough, it can be guaranteed that the arrival time difference will never exceed one half wavelength. Therefore, the cross correlation only needs to be completed within +/- half a wavelength. The signals occur at a maximum frequency of approximately 40KHz, which means that the arrival time difference can never exceed approximately 12.5 microseconds. This means that the hydrophones must be spaced within 1.8cm of each other due to the speed of sound in water. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Now that the theoretical aspects are out of the way, the foundation of the problem starts to take shape. | ||
+ | 1) Acquire signals on all four hydrophones (one reference and 3 along each X, Y, and Z axis) | ||
+ | 2) Cross-correlate the X, Y, and Z axis signals against the reference to calculate time of flight delay. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The cross correlation step is simple mathematics. Note that cross-correlation boils down to multiplying individual points of two signals together and accumulating, so if the signals are big it can take quite a bit of time. We will discuss how to handle this later. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The main difficulty exists in sampling the signals. It is important that samples are taken simultaneously on each of the hydrophones and that the signals are sampled fast enough to ensure that the precision in time of flight is accurate enough (for example, at a sampling frequency of 1MHz, the time of arrival can never be more precise than a signal microsecond). Therefore, the system must be capable of simultaneously sampling four channels at a minimum rate of 1MHz. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Hardware ===== | ||
+ | ^ Device ^ Part Number ^ Datasheet ^ | ||
+ | | Processor Carrier Board | MicroZed | [[http://zedboard.org/support/documentation/1519|Datasheet]] | | ||
+ | | Main Processor | XC7Z010 | [[https://www.xilinx.com/support/documentation/user_guides/ug585-Zynq-7000-TRM.pdf|Datasheet]] | | ||
+ | | Hydrophones | AS-1 | [[http://www.aquarianaudio.com/as-1-hydrophone.html|Datasheet]]| | ||
+ | | Analog-to-Digital Converter | LTC2171-14 | [[http://cds.linear.com/docs/en/datasheet/21721014fb.pdf|Datasheet]]| | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== System Design ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | {{ :ee:hydrophones:hydrophones-system-architecture.jpg}} | ||
+ | |||
+ | The hydrophones have small piezo sensors that output very small voltages as sound hits them. To be able to read them, the hydrophone signals are filtered with a 1st order bandpass and then are gained by approximately 40-60dB. After the signals are amplified, they are then passed to the ADC for conversion. The ADC samples the hydrophone signals at 5MHz simultaneously and outputs the converted information over a custom, parallel interface. This interface is differential and utilizes DDR. In order to read the ADC values, the Zynq SoC (System on a Chip) is used. The Zynq has a dual core ARM processor embedded in FPGA fabric. A custom Verilog module was created for reading the parallel interface output by the ADC. The data is then sent over the AXI4-Stream protocol to allow it to be transferred into the processor's RAM through the HP-AXI interface (AXI is a common communication protocol for custom hardware modules written in Verilog). In order to accomodate the high data rate of the analog measurements, the AXI stream is connected to a DMA engine. At this point, the data has been successfully transferred into the computer and the cross correlation can be performed. The below sections delve into specifics of each of the different design areas. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Analog Design ==== | ||
+ | The analog signal goes through a five-stage amplification and filtering process. First, the signal is sent through two gain stages, each of which apply an adjustable gain to the signal. After the signal is gained into a reasonable voltage range, it is passed through a low-pass filter and then a high-pass filter to result in a bandpass filter of the signal. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Once the signal has been filtered and gained, it is preprocessed for the ADC. In order to acquire more accurate measurements, the ADC requires signals to be differential. The analog signals are therefore put through a signle-ended to differential converter. Immediately before the signals enter the ADC, there is a low-pass anti-aliasing filtering. This filter guarantees Niquist criteria, which means that any frequencies detected in the sampled signal will not be aliases of higher frequencies. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ==== FPGA Design ==== | ||
+ | The FPGA has a number of parts to it, but its ultimate goal is to take samples sent from the ADC and transfer them into the processor's memory. Immediately, the differential signals are passed to the FPGA IO buffers to convert them to single-ended. After the single-ended conversion, a custom Verilog block was written that takes in the ADC's clock and data signals to properly digitize the data. It then provides this data on an AXI-Stream interface. Because ADC reader block is driven off an external clock and the rest of the FPGA is clocked internally, care must be taken to cross the clock boundaries to prevent metastability. The Xilinx FIFO generator was used, as it generates an asynchronous read-write FIFO that can be used for synchronizing data with the internal FPGA clock. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After synchronization, the AXI stream is connected to a Stream-To-Multi-Master Direct Memory Access (S2MM DMA) engine. The DMA engine is a software-programmable peripheral that will asynchronously write the ADC samples into the processor's RAM. | ||
+ | |||
+ | There are a few other features implemented in the FPGA fabric, including the XSystemMonitor, which monitors the FPGA temperature. There is also a SPI module implemented that is used to program the ADC internal registers and verify its functionality. In Rev C of the HydroZynq, the manually adjustable potentiometers have been replaced with SPI-programmable potentiometers, which allows the analog gain of the signal to be controlled digitally. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Software Design ==== | ||
+ | **Note that for ease of use, the HydroZynq is programmed bare-metal. There is no operating system on the board!** | ||
+ | |||
+ | The software design is straightforward, but the most complex of the other systems. Communication with other computers is implemented using UDP sockets provided by the lwIP (lightweight IP) library. When the CPU first boots, it loads the program off the SD card into memory. It then programs the FPGA bit stream and begins program execution after initializing most peripherals (e.g. Xilinx Ethernet). The application then initializes peripherals that were instantiated in the FPGA fabric (such as the ADC reader, the system monitor, and the SPI engine). It then configures the ADC chip and binds/connects to a variety of UDP ports for communication. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The software first attempts to sync onto the ping. Because the ping happens every two seconds, once the first ping has been found, the system can consistently find every other ping afterwards. To acquire initial synchronization, the code samples the hydrophones for 2.2 seconds. It then scans this period for the earliest start of a ping (by performing a threshold detection). It then calculates at what exact time the ping started and schedules sampling to begin at the next future ping. | ||
+ | |||
+ | After sync is acquired, the software samples for approximately 250ms during the ping period. It then locates the ping and truncates around the start to minimize the amount of data that needs to be cross-correlated. The software marks the timestamp of the ping and schedules a time that the next ping should occur at. Finally, the data is then cross-correlated to calculate the time of arrivals for each ping. The software then transmits a variety of debug information (including all sample data, correlation calculations, and time of arrival deltas) over ethernet. The cycle continuously repeats until a ping is not detected in the 250ms sample period. If this occurs, it will try to regain sync by continuously sampling fro 2.2 seconds. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Getting Started ===== | ||
+ | This section is designed to help a developer get started updating and programming the HydroZynq. | ||
+ | |||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Code ==== | ||
+ | All software and firmware is available in [[https://github.com/PalouseRobosub/hydro-zynq|the GitHub repository]]. There are two primary directories: hardware and software. The hardware folder contains all the Verilog and TCL files for interracting with Vivado. TCL scripts have been generated to rebuild the block design in vivado, and a README.txt file in proj/ describes how to use them. Additionally, the IO constraints file is provided for the current hardware. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The software folder contains all C source code used in programming the HydroZynq. An ELF file can be created by using the `mk` script supplied with the source file name. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Example: | ||
+ | ./mk app/main_bin.c | ||
+ | |||
+ | All files located in src/ will be compiled against the application specified to generate the binary. Finally, a BOOT.bin file (binary image that is used for booting off the SD cared) can be created through the utilization of the 'doit' script. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Example: | ||
+ | ./doit app/main_bin.c bit/adc_dma_revb.bit | ||
+ | |||
+ | This will automatically mount and copy over the BOOT.bin to the card for the HydroZynq. This script takes in the source file name of the main application as the first argument and the bit stream file as the second parameter. | ||
+ | |||
+ | **The current firmware utilizes software/bit/adc_dma_revb.bit as the bitstream file.** | ||
+ | |||
+ | ==== Programming & Debugging ==== | ||
+ | Programming and debugging can be completed through creation of new BOOT.bin files on the SD card, but this is often extremely inefficient. The [[https://store.digilentinc.com/jtag-hs3-programming-cable/|Digilent HS3]] can be used as a JTAG access point for GDB debug interfaces. To interact with the HydroZynq through JTAG, use the `xmd` command (provided by Xilinx). | ||
+ | |||
+ | After executing xmd from the command line, you will enter a shell-like environment. To connect to the ARM core for programming, enter: | ||
+ | > connect arm hw | ||
+ | | ||
+ | Once connected, if you desired to program the FPGA or the ARM, first stop the ARM CPU. | ||
+ | > stop | ||
+ | |||
+ | To program a new bitstream, | ||
+ | > fpga -f [bitstream_file_path] | ||
+ | | ||
+ | To load a new ELF onto the CPU, | ||
+ | > dow [elf_file_path] | ||
+ | | ||
+ | Finally, the CPU can be restarted, | ||
+ | > run | ||
+ | | ||
+ | Once XMD has been started, a remote GDB server is automatically instantiated. To connect to the GDB server, simply use the debug.sh script located in `software/` to launch up a GDB session. | ||
+ | [hydrozynq-repo-path]/software/debug.sh | ||
+ | | ||
+ | | ||
+ | ==== Communication ==== | ||
+ | The HydroZynq communicates primarily through UDP. A number of user scripts have been created in the `scripts/` folder for ease of use with UDP. For example, the stdout of the application is sent to Cobalt's UDP port 3000 (e.g. 192.168.0.2:3000). A simple python application ([hydrozynq-repo-path]/scripts.debug_stream.py) can be used to view the standard output of the application (e.g. dbprintf() statements). | ||
+ | |||
+ | === Port Descriptions === | ||
+ | ^ Port Number ^ Destination ^ Description ^ | ||
+ | | 3000 | Cobalt | Command port | | ||
+ | | 3001 | Cobalt | Sample data stream port | | ||
+ | | 3002 | Cobalt | Time of Arrival Delay result port | | ||
+ | | 3003 | Cobalt | Cross-correlation stream port | | ||
+ | | 3004 | Cobalt | Debug/STDOUT port | | ||
+ | |||
+ | Note that the HydroZynq does not run ROS natively, so python scripts running on cobalt are necessary for interfacing the HydroZynq with ROS. As of now, these scripts are still under initial development. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The HydroZynq currently sends out all data used in the cross-correlation and the results of the final cross-correlation. These can be visualized using python and MatPlotLib through the scripts made available: | ||
+ | python [hydrozynq-repo-path]/scripts/data_receiver.py | ||
+ | |||
+ | python [hydrozynq-repo-path]/scripts/correlation_receiver.py | ||
+ | | ||
+ | The data and correlation results are sent using a trivial packet format: | ||
+ | <packet_number as unsigned, little-endian 4-byte integer> <Sample 1> ... <Sample N> | ||
+ | |||
+ | Data results contain 4 channels per Sample, where each channel is a 16-bit unsigned integer (little-endian) value. (E.g. each sample is 64 bits and has 4 values). | ||
+ | |||
+ | Correlation results contain 3 channels per Sample, where each channel is a 4-byte integer (little-endian) value. The first sample is the correlation between Channel 1 and reference, teh second is between Channel 2 and reference, and the last is between Channel 3 and reference. | ||
+ | |||
+ | The HydroZynq allows for a number of run-time parameters to be set dynamically, including the ping detection threshold. These can be sent to the HydroZynq command port in a simple ASCII string. | ||
+ | [keyword]:[value],[keyword]:[value],.... (etc) | ||
+ | | ||
+ | Note that the string must terminate without a trailing comma and that it is able to only have a single key-value pair. The current supported keys are as follows: | ||
+ | ^ Key String ^ Data Type ^ Description ^ | ||
+ | | reset | N/A | Causes the Zynq to perform a software reset. | | ||
+ | | threshold | unsigned int | Sets the HydroZynq ping ADC threshold value. | |