Functional Evaluation of External Interfaces on the Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit for Practical Deployment

Abstract

This study presents a functional evaluation of the five primary external interfaces of the Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit Pmod, SFP+, Raspberry Pi HAT, Ethernet, and USB using a unified hardware–software workflow based on Vivado ML 2022.2 and the Vitis Unified Software Platform 2022.2. Each interface was implemented and tested through repeated execution cycles to assess digital I/O behavior, sensor communication reliability, and high-speed data transfer capability. The experimental results show that the KR260 provides stable and responsive performance across a wide range of interface operations. The Pmod interface achieved rapid GPIO switching with moderate sensitivity to repeated toggling, while the SFP+ subsystem demonstrated near line rate 10 Gbps throughput with observable variability in link stability. The Raspberry Pi HAT interface delivered consistent I²C sensor measurements with a 90% success rate. The Ethernet interface demonstrated exceptional stability with 100% connection success and measured throughput exceeding nominal Gigabit specifications. USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 evaluations confirmed functional read/write operations, with performance influenced by device-specific flash drive behavior. Overall, the findings validate the KR260 as a robust and versatile platform for real-time robotics development, offering dependable performance for control, sensing, and high-bandwidth communication tasks.