Xilinx Arm FPGA, Snapdragon SoM’s, and Wandboard SBC Field Trip to Space

SpaceX Starlink Satellites Falcon Rocket

Most embedded systems are used here on planet earth, but some do take off heading for space, and this week I come accross two separate projects leveraging Arm processors and FPGAs, as well as Ubuntu/ROS and Android operating systems: SpaceX Starlink communication satellites and Astrobee robots roaming in the international space station (ISS) SpaceX Starlink Satellites with Xilinx Ultrascale+ Arm + FPGA SoC SpaceX is about to launch a cloud of 60 Starlink communication satellites that aims to provide internet communication anywhere in the world. That’s just a start as eventually the plan is to get up to 12,000 of those satellites. Usually, we would not know many technical details about the satellites, but as one reader pointed out (Thanks Lawrence!), a Reddit thread about the launch, also pointed to a NASA document revealing the satellites are powered by Xilinx Ultrascale+ quad core Cortex-A53 processor with FPGA fabric. Milestone 2 […]

ZED Depth and Motion Tracking Camera Supports NVIDIA Jetson Nano Board

ZED depth camera Jetson Nano

When NVIDIA launched their low cost Jetson Nano development board earlier this week, one reader asked whether it would support binocular depth mapping. It turns out Stereo Labs has updated the SDK (Software Development Kit) for the ZED depth and motion tracking camera in order to support the latest NVIDIA developer kit. Jetson Nano can manage depth and positional tracking at 30 fps in PERFORMANCE mode with 720p resolution, and while the more powerful and expensive Jetson TX2 achieves doubles the performance at 60 fps, it does so at a much higher cost. ZED depth and motion tracking camera specifications: Video 2.2K @ 15 fps (4416×1242 resolution) 1080p @ 30 fps (3840×1080 resolution) 720p @ 60 fps (2560×720 resolution) WVGA @ 100 fps (1344×376 resolution) Depth Resolution – Same as selected video resolution Range – 0.5 to 20 m Format – 32-bits Stereo Baseline – 120 mm Motion 6-axis Pose […]

NVIDIA Introduces $99 Jetson Nano Developer Kit

Jetson Nano

NVIDIA Tegra X1 octa-core Arm processor with a 256-core Maxwell GPU was introduced in 2015. The processor powers the popular NVIDIA Shield Android TV box, and is found in Jetson TX1 development board which still costs $500 and is approaching end-of-life. The company has now introduced a much cheaper board with Jetson Nano Developer Kit offered for just $99. It’s not exactly powered by Tegra X1 however, but instead what appears to be a cost-down version of the processor with four Arm Cortex-A57 cores clocked at 1.43 GHz and a 128-core Maxwell GPU. Jetson Nano developer kit specifications: Jetson Nano CPU Module 128-core Maxwell GPU Quad-core Arm A57 processor @ 1.43 GHz System Memory  – 4GB 64-bit LPDDR4 @ 25.6 GB/s Storage  – microSD card slot (devkit) or 16GB eMMC flash (production) Video Encode – 4K @ 30 | 4x 1080p @ 30 | 9x 720p @ 30 (H.264/H.265) Video […]

Qualcomm Robotics RB3 Development Platform is Powered by Snapdragon 845 SoC

96Boards TurboX 845 SoM

[Update: The board is now known as “Qualcomm Robotics RB3 Development Platform” instead of DragonBoard 845c”, the rest of the article is unchanged] Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 is one of the fastest Arm processors found in consumer devices, and if you ever wanted a development platform with access to various I/Os, you’d have to go with fairly expensive kits (>$1,000) such as Intrinsyc Open-Q 845 HDK. The good news is that there’s now a cheaper Snapdragon 845 development board, compliant with 96Boards CE specifications, thanks to Thundercomm’s Robotics DragonBoard 845c that combines with processor with 4GB RAM, 64GB UFS storage, and the usual 96boards ports and expansion headers. Robotics DragonBoard 845c specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 with 8x custom 64-bit ARMv8 CPUs up to 2.8 GHz Adreno 630 GPU  with support for OpenGL ES 3.2 + AEP, DX next, Vulkan 2, OpenCL 2.0 full profile, and RenderScript Hexagon 685 DSP […]

BOXER-8120AI is a Compact Jetson TX2 Mini PC for Drones, Robots and Surveillance Applications

Jetson TX2 Mini PC

AAEON has just launched BOXER-8120AI compact mini PC based on NVIDIA Jetson TX2 processor module with 8GB RAM, 32GB storage, and four Gigabit Ethernet ports. The fanless mini PC targets smart surveillance/ security/ parking, unmanned stores, drones and robotic controllers, or any applications that can leverage Jetson TX2’s 256 CUDA cores for A.I. workloads. BOXER-8120AI Jetson TX2 Mini PC specifications: Processor Module – NVIDIA Jetson TX2 with HMP Dual Denver 2 + Quad Arm A57, NVIDIA Pascal GPU with 256 CUDA cores, 4K (HEVC) video encoder, 4K 12-bit video decoder System Memory – 8GB LPDDR4 @ 59.7 GB/s Storage – 32GB eMMC 5.1 flash, MicroSD slot Display Interface – HDMI 2.0 type A Networking – 4x 10/100/1000Base-TX Ethernet USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 1x micro USB OTG port Serial – 2x COM ports (DB9) Misc – Power Button, Power LED, 2x SMA Holes, Remote Power On/Off Power Supply – […]

Intel RealSense Tracking Camera T265 is Designed for Autonomous Devices

Intel RealSense Tracking Camera T265

Intel has just launched another smart camera with RealSense Tracking Camera T265 powered by the company’s Myriad 2 VPU (Vision Processing Unit) also found in the first Neural Compute Stick, and designed for autonomous robots, drones, and augmented/virtual reality applications. The T265 camera is said to use proprietary visual inertial odometry simultaneous localization and mapping (V-SLAM) technology “delivering high-performance guidance and navigation”. Intel RealSense tracking camera T265 hardware specifications: VPU – Intel Movidius Myriad 2 vision processing unit with 12 VLIW 128-bit vector SHAVE processors optimized to run V‑SLAM at low power Cameras – 2x Omnivision OV9282 high-speed image sensors with Fisheye lenses for a combined 163±5° FOV; infrared cut filter Sensor – Bosch BMI055 6-axis IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) to measure rotation and acceleration of the device USB – 1x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Micro B port to transfer pose data, or pose + image data. Dimensions – 108 x 24.5 x 12.5 mm; 2x […]

Skoobot is a Tiny Robot with BLE Connectivity and Sensors (Crowdfunding)

Skoobot

If you want to get started with robotics either for yourself, or maybe teach children, Skoobot robot could be an interesting option. It’s extra small with a 2.5 cm cubic shape, support Bluetooth Low Energy, and  includes some sensors like ST VL6180 distance and ambient light sensor, and a microphone. Skoobot hardware specifications: MCU – Nordic Semi nRF52832 Arm Cortex M4F microcontroller with 512KB flash, 64KB SRAM Connectivity – Bluetooth Low Energy (built into nRF52832) Sensors ST VL6180X distance sensor (0 to 10 cm range) and ambient light level sensors Knowles microphone for word and beep recognition Two motors and wheels Misc – Buzzer Battery – Yes (no capacity specified) Dimensions – 2.5 x 2.5 x 2.5 cm A separate companion board is also provided to handle charging, UART and J-Link mode debugging and programming. The robot can be controlled from an Android app, or a Raspberry Pi board using […]

ARCO is a Real Robot that Lives in Virtual Worlds (Crowdfunding)

ARCO ROVER AR Robot

Hicat launched HICAT.Livera machine vision board for robotics projects on Kickstarter two year ago. The company second project is still related to robotics and machine vision, but geared towards a different target audience, as ARCO robot aims to offer an augmented reality gaming experience to kids, although it’s still hackable/customizable as we’ll see below. The hardware part is mostly comprised of ARCO ROVER robot, and a Bluetooth controller that can be stored in ARCO’s inner capsule, where it recharges and communicates with ARCO through a magnetic pogo connection joint.  The listed specifications are rather limited: ARCO ROVER Bluetooth connectivity (nRF52 WiSoC) 10 RGB LEDs Battery – Good for about one hour Power Supply – Via USB type C port Dimensions – 8.9 x 7 x 6.5 cm Weight – ~180 grams Controller Bluetooth (nRF52) Sensor – 3-axis accelerometer for motion detection Trigger and rocker Battery – Good for about one […]

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