Towards digital twins for safety demonstrations: Interfacing strategies for FPGA-targeted applications

Abstract

For facilitating a framework of digital twins for safety demonstrations, this research paper identifies feasible interfacing strategies to connect a digital twin of novel all-electric actuation systems with safety-critical functions targeted for an FPGA device. The framework can improve safety demonstrations with a lifecycle perspective and one-to-one twinning if the values of the framework are realizable. For selecting a suitable interfacing strategy, the paper proposes five performance criteria to preserve the framework’s values while interfacing the controller logic with a digital twin. The paper introduces a safety-critical case study, thereby establishing reasoning, literature, and simulation testing of the interfacing strategies regarding relevant interfacing considerations and the performance criteria. We recommend using behavioral models during the design of FPGA firmware and commercial tools for verification against a reference model during the synthesizing steps. For the final development stage, we propose an FPGA-based digital twin, which offers high computational speed, scalability for integration testing, and comprehensive testing of the digital logical circuits. Implementing the recommendation requires practical implications, including adhering to FPGA configuration constraints and developing custom resources for interacting with the FPGA-based digital twin.