Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have the potential to significantly improve the performance and energy efficiency of robotics applications. Several studies propose frameworks that systematically integrate FPGAs into robotic systems, primarily within the Robot Operating System (ROS), the de facto standard middleware for robotics. Recently, two main research directions have emerged: One explores the use of Dynamic Function Exchange (DFX) to time-multiplex hardware-accelerated functions on an FPGA, while the other focuses on intra-FPGA communication, leveraging interconnections between statically mapped hardware-accelerated functions to reduce communication overhead.In this paper, we present a robotics middleware that supports both DFX and dynamic intra-FPGA communication. The middleware employs a static FPGA layout with multiple reconfigurable slots, complemented by router and buffer infrastructure for streaming-based data distribution. Unlike related work, the call-backs executed in reconfigurable slots, the exchanged messages, and the routing configurations do not need to be known at build time, enabling a high degree of runtime flexibility. We describe the hardware architecture, analyze potential deadlock scenarios, and derive constraints required for deadlock-free operation, which our architecture satisfies. We evaluate the middleware using small-scale test cases and a larger autonomous robot simulation. The results quantify the overhead introduced by the flexible design compared to static mappings and demonstrate performance gains over DFX-only and software-only approaches enabled by dynamic intra-FPGA communication.

Abstract The development of new business models is essential for startups to become successful, as well as for established companies to explore new business opportunities. However, developing such business models is a continuous challenging activity where different tasks need to be performed, and business decisions need to be made. Both have to fit the constantly changeable situation in which the business model is developed to reduce the risk of developing ineffective business models with low market penetration. Therefore, a method for developing situation-specific business models is needed. As a solution, we refine the concept of situational method engineering (SME) to business model development. SME, in turn, provides means to construct situation-specific development methods out of fragments from a method repository. We develop a concept for the continuous situation-specific development of business models based on design science. The approach uses the roles of a domain expert, a method engineer, and a business developer together with a repository with method fragments for developing business models and a repository with modeling artifacts for supporting the development. Both repositories are filled by utilizing the experience of domain experts. Out of these repositories, situation-specific development methods for developing business models can be continuously composed based on the changeable situation by the method engineer and enacted by the business developer. We implement it as an open-source tool and evaluate its applicability in an industrial case study of developing a business model for a local event platform. Our results show that situation awareness supports the continuous development of business models.