ICE 5: Basic Elevator Controller

ICE 5: Basic Elevator Controller#

Overview#

In this in-class exercise, you design an elevator controller that will traverse four floors (numbered 1 to 4). You will only simulate your design; you will not implement it in hardware during this ICE.

Objectives#

  • Create and simulate a synchronous sequential logic system

  • Use VHDL to build a provided state diagram.

  • Write a testbench for a synchronous system to fully simulate the state machine’s operation.

End State#

Provide a demo of your waveform to your instructor.

You are not required to turn in ICE5; however, ensure the following files are pushed to your repository:

  1. VHDL files

  2. Waveform and waveform configuration files

System Specification#

Your elevator controller will traverse four floors (numbered 1 to 4).

  • Two external inputs, i_up_down and i_stop.

  • When i_up_down is ‘1’ and i_stop is ‘0’, the elevator will move up until it reaches the top floor (one floor per clock, of course).

  • When i_up_down is ‘0’ and i_stop is ‘0’, the elevator will move down until it reaches the bottom floor (one floor per clock).

  • When i_stop is ‘1’, the system always stops at the current floor.

  • When the elevator is at the top floor, it will stay there until i_up_down goes to ‘0’.

  • When the elevator is at the bottom floor, it will stay there until i_up_down goes to ‘1’.

  • The system should output the floor it is on (1 - 4) as a four-bit binary number, o_floor.

  • i_reset synchronously puts the FSM into state Floor 2.

This description is translated into a state diagram shown in Fig. 29.

Inputs:
    i_up_down : '1' is Up, '0' is Down
    i_stop    : '1' is Stop, '0' is Go

Outputs:
    o_floor:
        Floor 1: "0001"
        Floor 2: "0010"
        Floor 3: "0011"
        Floor 4: "0100"
../_images/ice5_elevator-fsm.png

Fig. 29 Elevator controller state machine#

Setup Vivado#

  1. Fork and clone ICE 5

  2. Open the folder

  3. Double click elevatorController.xpr to open Vivado!

Modify headers and make an initial commit.

elevator_controller_fsm.vhd#

The entity description has been completed for you.

State register process#

Recall that i_reset should be synchronous! Reference Lesson 22 Note Taker. The reset state is Floor 2.

Because i_stop effectively functions as an enable, we can handle it in our state register implementation.

Effectively, (if reset is low) then current state gets next state only when the rising clock edge and the elevator is not stopped. Otherwise, we stay at our current state (floor).

This allows us to greatly simplify our next state and output logic! See below.

Enumerated types#

This template has already been loaded with enumerated types for your states.

Enumerated types allow you to define your next state and output logic in terms of the state name instead of bits! This means you don’t have to create the equations for a chosen encoding type. Vivado gets to take care of that for you.

type sm_floor is (s_floor1, s_floor2, s_floor3, s_floor4);

Here we have the type sm_floor which can be any one of the four provided states. We can also make signals of this type! This signal can be assigned the values defined above.

signal f_Q, f_Q_next : sm_floor;

You can use an enumerated type for conditional assignments! See VHDL Reference.pdf on Teams.

Because we handled i_stop in the state register (see above), our concurrent logic here can be greatly simplified.

We provide a shell. The < > symbol represents a placeholder. The ... means you need additional lines of logic.

-- Next State Logic
f_Q_next <= <state> when (<condition>) else -- going up
            ...
            ...
            ... -- going down
            ...
            ... else
            ...; -- default case

-- Output logic
with f_Q select
    o_floor <= <value> when s_floor1,
            ...
            ...
            <value> when others; -- default is floor1

  • The entity declaration has been completed for you.

  • Use a synchronous reset for your controller FSM

Hint

We recommend that you handle i_stop logic in your process. This will save you lots of lines in the concurrent statements.

Also, think about how nested if statements and elsif are helpful.

Read through the provided code and comments, and then build the state machine in VHDL.

elevator_controller_fsm_tb.vhd#

We provide a component declarations, port maps, and simulated clock. All you need to do is complete the test_process.

Make sure you hit:

  • Reset

  • Elevator going up

  • Elevator going down

  • Elevator waiting on floors

  • Elevator stopping on top floor (while going up)

  • Elevator stopping on bottom floor (while going down)

  1. Add the f_Q and f_Q_next signals to your waveform.

  2. Save the .wcfg

  3. Add a screenshot to your README

Show the waveform to your instructor.

Deliverables#

Double check that you have all VHD files and your Waveform pushed to GitHub. The GitHub Action should run your testbench and pass.

Deliverable

Points

Waveform Demo

50

Passing GitHub Action

50

Congratulations, you have completed In Class Exercise 5!

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