Arduino Open Hardware Test Through Chemical System Simulation Under Lumped Model Dynamics

Abstract

RESUMO -Arduino boards are interesting computing tool due to low cost and power consumption, as well as I/O ports, both analogs and digitals. Yet, small memory and clock frequency with truncation errors may disrupt numerical processing. This study aimed to design and evaluate the performance of a dynamic simulation based on ODEs in the Arduino, with three evaluated microprocessors; ATMEGA 328P and 2560, both 8 bits, and SAM3X8E Atmel ARM CORTEX -32 bits. The study case was a batch reactor dynamic simulation. The Runge-Kutta 4th order algorithm was written in C++ and compiled for EPROM utilization. The output was a 115000bit/s serial connection. Processing time was almost identical for 8 bits architectures, while 32 bits was 25% faster. Without the serial connection the 8 bits architectures were 16 times faster and the 32 bits was 42 times faster. Error truncation was similar, since the floating points is done through software. The Arduino platform, despite its modest hardware, allows simple chemical systems simulation.