EntoBench: A Benchmarking Framework for Insect-Scale Robotics

Version: v1.0.0-ae

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Overview

EntoBench is a framework and benchmark suite for computer vision, state estimation, and control kernels on insect-scale robots.
It targets ARM Cortex-M (STM32) MCUs and provides reproducible measurements of:

• Cycle counts
• Latency
• Peak power
• Energy

This Artifact Evaluation (AE) release reproduces the results in the paper’s Workload Characterization section using automated build scripts and GUI-based measurement tools.

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Supported Hardware

Target Boards

• NUCLEO-STM32G474RE (Cortex-M4F)
• NUCLEO-STM32U575ZIQ (Cortex-M33F)
• NUCLEO-STM32H7A3ZIQ (Cortex-M7F)

Measurement Hardware (optional)

• STLINK-V3PWR — current measurements, flashing, semihosting
• Saleae Logic Pro — logic timing & trigger capture

Alternative probes (e.g., X-NUCLEO-LPM01A) may work but are not officially supported.

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Installation (Ubuntu 24.04)

All steps are automated via scripts in scripts/. Run them in order:

1) System Packages

cd scripts
./00-install-system-packages.sh

2) ARM GNU Toolchain (14.3)

./01-install-arm-toolchain.sh

3) Python Environment

./02-setup-python-venv.sh
source ~/.venvs/entobench-ae/bin/activate

4) STLINK-V3PWR udev Rules

./03-setup-udev-stlinkv3pwr.sh
# unplug/replug STLINK-V3PWR after this

5) GUI Apps (manual download, then register)

• STM32CubeMonPwr: download from ST and extract to
  ~/external/STMicroelectronics/STM32CubeMonitor-Power/
• Saleae Logic 2: place AppImage under
  ~/external/logic2/

Register convenient launchers:

./04-register-cmp-logic2.sh
source ~/.bashrc

6) Verify Setup

./05-verify-setup.sh

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Quick Start (AE Workflow)

0) Clone

git clone https://github.com/cornell-brg/ento-bench.git
cd ento-bench

1) Create build & experiment structure

./scripts/flow/00-setup-experiment-env.sh

Creates:

• Builds: build/build-g474, build/build-u575, build/build-h7a3
• Experiments: experiments/ae/m4/example/{example-cache,example-nocache}

2) Launch GUIs

./scripts/flow/01-launch-apps.sh

Then in your desktop/XRDP session, bring STM32CubeMonitor-Power and Logic 2 to the foreground.

3) Flash & run the example benchmark (with acquisition)

1. In Logic 2: press Play
2. In CMP: press Start Acquisition
3. In a terminal:

   cd build/build-g474
   make stm32-flash-bench-example-semihosted

4. Wait until the trigger pin (D7) goes low in Logic 2, then stop both acquisitions.

4) Save measurement data

• Logic 2: Save a .sal and Export Raw Data to
  experiments/ae/m4/example/example-cache/
• CMP: “Save Graph” to the same directory
  (tip: the button can be finicky—click near the lower-right corner)

5) Analyze

source ~/.venvs/entobench-ae/bin/activate
./scripts/flow/02-analyze-energy.sh \
  -d experiments/ae/m4/example/example-cache

Outputs include cycle counts, average energy, peak power, and latency.
Expected/illustrative outputs are shown in docs/expected-results.md (PDF provided).

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Experiment Customization

Change per-benchmark parameters in:

• benchmark/configs/example_benchmarks.json (for the example)
• Other domains under benchmark/configs/

Disable caches by setting:

"enable_caches": false

Re-configure builds to propagate config changes:

./scripts/clean-and-rebuild.sh

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Troubleshooting

CMP won’t launch (JavaFX error) or no GUI under XRDP

• Use the registered launcher which runs the bundled JRE and XRDP-friendly flags:

  cube-monitor-pwr

  (The 04-register-cmp-logic2.sh script sets this up as: SWT_GTK3=0 _JAVA_OPTIONS="-Dsun.java2d.xrender=false" "$CMP_DIR/jre/bin/java" -jar "$CMP_DIR/STM32CubeMonitor-Power.jar")

Logic 2 AppImage won’t start (FUSE)

• Install FUSE v2 compatibility: sudo apt-get install -y libfuse2

udev permissions

• Re-run ./03-setup-udev-stlinkv3pwr.sh and unplug/replug the device.

CMake floods warnings

• AE release globally suppresses most warnings in the top-level CMake for clarity.

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Repository Structure (high level)

ento-bench/
├─ benchmark/                # Benchmarks and configs
│  └─ configs/               # JSON configs (e.g., enable_caches)
├─ docs/                     # Setup guides, expected results, customization
├─ scripts/                  # Install & helper scripts
│  ├─ install/               # AE install scripts (00,01,02...,05)
│  └─ flow/                  # AE workflow scripts (00,01,02...)
├─ src/                      # Source code (kernels, eval framework)
├─ stm32-cmake/              # Toolchain files & MCU configs
├─ tools/                    # Analysis scripts (rename/sync/analyze)
└─ build/                    # Generated build dirs (after setup)

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Versioning

• Tag: v1.0.0-ae
• Any AE-only fixes will bump the last segment: v1.0.0-ae.1, v1.0.0-ae.2, …

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Citation

Please cite our paper (to appear) if you use EntoBench in your research. Will be added upon publication.

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License

TBD (will be updated upon camera-ready).

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Contact / Issues

• Issues & feature requests: GitHub Issues
• Hardware enablement requests welcome (open an issue with board details)