Exploration of Synthesis Methods from Simulink Models to FPGA for Aerospace Applications.

Model-based development techniques in Matlab/Simulink simplify the design and implementation of software for aerospace applications, providing the required level of abstraction for scientists that work on complex navigation and control algorithms. As Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have become more and more relevant in space hardware platforms, developers could benefit from automated acceleration flows that do not require extensive manual rewriting of their code to port it on FPGA. We analyze existing methods that synthesize Simulink models, showing how a combination of automated C code generation and High-Level Synthesis can enable rapid prototyping, fast design space exploration, and a good trade-off between accelerator efficiency and design flexibility. We test the proposed acceleration flow on real-world guidance and navigation control systems for CubeSats.