In the recent years the satellite industry has progressed on the subject of optical communication for use in space. With recorded speeds over 5 Gb/s it has shown to be an alternative for radio communication. In the CubeSat market this technology is new, underdeveloped, and could lead to new missions that were not possible before. As such, TNO and Hyperion joined forces to create the CubeCAT LCT (Laser Communication Terminal). The core part of this LCT is the high-speed digital data path, which was not implemented. This thesis discusses the design, implementation, and verification of the high-speed data path of the CubeCAT LCT (Laser Communication Terminal) that has a targeted speed of 100 Mb/s, with a future upgrade path to 1 Gb/s. The CubeCAT module consists of multiple modules, of which the DMU (Data Management Unit) hosts the high-speed data path. As the DMU was not implemented, a design for the DMU is proposed in this thesis. For this design multiple architectures, interconnects, and components where considered. The proposed design is based on an Hyperion CP400.85 microprocessor connected to a Lattice ECP5-5G FPGA, together with extra external memory and external storage. Then, an implementation of the high-speed data path was made that is based on a QSPI link between the microprocessor and the FPGA. This implementation is based on streaming the data from the microprocessor to the FPGA, in which the data is encoded according to the TNO3k FEC (Forward Error Correction) scheme. After encoding, the data is outputted as an LVDS signal to the laser output. The implementation of the high-speed data path was verified by simulation and on a development setup. This was done by first verifying all submodules, with focus on the QSPI link and the TNO3k encoder, and then as a whole system. All submodule tests were successful, with a note to the verification of the QSPI link. It was found that the development setup was limited to a SPI frequency of 41.50 MHz due to signal integrity issues. During the system test it was found that the there was a lack of LVDS test material. As such the LVDS output was replaced by a UART output. With this output the whole system has been validated for a QSPI link speed of 119.2 Mb/s and an internal FPGA speed of 3.2 Gb/s. The system, with LVDS output, is estimated to consume 1 watts of power. With the validation of the whole system, the high-speed data path of the CubeCAT LCT has been implemented. The design of the DMU allows for a later, 1 Gb/s upgrade of the high-speed data path.

This bachelor thesis is about the design of the Safety and Sensing module, which is part of the Environment Observation Module for Deci Zebro robots. This Environment Observation Module is developed at the faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science (EEMCS) of Delft University of Technology. Zebro robots were not able to walk around without falling off things or without collide against obstacles. Also Zebro was not able to collect data of its surrounding or of its own position and orientation.
With the Safety and Sensing Module Zebro will be able to collect data of its surroundings such as light intensity, humidity and temperature and is equipped with lift and fall detection and over-current and
internal overheat protection. Also the safety of Zebro and its ability to walk around safely are improved with this module.
Because Deci Zebro is not able to walk at this time, the module is not tested under real circumstances. In simulated circumstances the module works as intended.