News

ROS 2 Humble Hawksbill with Yocto and PetaLinux

Source: Acceleration Robotics, May 17, 2022 [1]
Yocto and ROS 2 allow you to build a production-grade custom operating system for robots. We discuss how to get ROS 2 Humble into Yocto and PetaLinux and why this is relevant for hardware acceleration.

AMD's robotics starter kit for the factory of the future

Source: Electronic Specifier, May 17, 2022 [2]
AMD has announced the Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit, the latest addition to the Kria portfolio of adaptive system-on-modules (SOMs) and developer kits. A scalable and out-of-the-box development platform for robotics, the Kria KR260 offers a seamless path to production deployment with the existing Kria K26 adaptive SOMs.

AMD Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit takes on NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier devkit

Source: Embedded Systems News, May 18, 2022 [3]
AMD Xilinx Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit features the Kria K26 Zynq UltraScale+ XCK26 FPGA MPSoC system-on-module (SoM) introduced last year together with the Kria KV260 Vision AI Starter Kit.

Designed as a development platform for robotics and industrial applications, the KR260 is said to deliver nearly 5x productivity gain, up to 8x better performance per watt and 3.5x lower latency compared to Nvidia Jetson AGX Xavier or Jetson Nano kits.

Streamlining ROS 2 Development on an FPGA SoC

Source: Electronic Design, May 17, 2022 [4]
The Robot Operating System (ROS) has emerged as the middleware underlying most robotic systems these days. ROS 2 is the latest incarnation. As noted, ROS is more middleware than an operating system and usually ROS runs on top of an operating system like Linux or Windows. ROS 2 also is built on the Object Management Group's (OMG) Data Distribution Service (DDS).

Of course, ROS 2 and DDS don’t do much unless there's hardware to run it on. This is where platforms like those from AMD-Xilinx come into play. The company's latest offerings are based on the K26 Adaptive SOM.

Edge ML and Robotics Critical for Digitalization and Industrial Automation Initiatives

Source: Robotics Business Review, May 17, 2022 [5]
Edge ML and robotics technologies are critical enablers for ongoing digitalization and automation efforts. Also required?… robust development platforms (hardware and software) that speed and simplify robotics development and deployment.

RISC-V needs more than an open architecture to compete

Source: The Register, May 16, 2022 [6]
Arm shows us that even total domination doesn't always make stupid levels of money.

The Challenge Of Optimizing Chip Architectures For Workloads

Source: Semiconductor Engineering, May 12, 2022 [7]
Hardware/software co-design has progressed beyond mapping one onto the other. It is about holistically solving a problem in the most efficient manner with a given set of constraints.

New Robots Require New Ways To Think About Processors

Source: Semiconductor Engineering, May 12, 2022 [8]
Enabling the deployment of safe, more power efficient robots while maintaining a small form factor. Sales of commercial and industrial robots are slated to grow by 25% to 35% per year over the next decade. The market could reach $260 billion by 2030, according to Boston Consulting Group estimates.

Robotics Outlook 2030: How Intelligence and Mobility Will Shape the Future

Source: BCG Global, June 28, 2021 [9]
We expect the global robotics market to climb from about $25 billion this year to between $160 billion and $260 billion by 2030, with market share for professional services robots hitting up to $170 billion and industrial and logistics robot sales topping off at about $80 billion.

MIPS discloses first RISC-V chips coming in Q4 2022

Source: The Register, May 11, 2022 [10]
eVocore processor line aimed at high-performance, real-time compute applications.

U.S. clears way for truly driverless vehicles without steering wheels

Source: CNBC, Mar 11, 2022 [11]
Federal vehicle safety regulators have cleared the way for the production and deployment of truly driverless vehicles that do not include manual controls such steering wheels or pedals.

Previous Hardware Acceleration in Robotics Newsletters

Past ROS 2 Hardware Acceleration Working Group meetings

  1. Mayoral, V. (2022, May 17). ROS 2 humble with Yocto and PetaLinux. Hardware Acceleration in Robotics. https://news.accelerationrobotics.com/ros2-humble-yocto-petalinux/ ↩︎

  2. Holland, S. (2022, May 17). AMD's robotics starter kit for the factory of the future. Electronics News | Electronic Specifier. https://www.electronicspecifier.com/industries/robotics/amd-s-robotics-starter-kit-for-the-factory-of-the-future ↩︎

  3. Aufranc, J. L. (2022, May 18). $349 AMD Kria KR260 robotics starter kit takes on NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier devkit. CNX Software - Embedded Systems News. https://www.cnx-software.com/2022/05/18/349-amd-kria-kr260-robotics-starter-kit-takes-on-nvidia-jetson-agx-xavier-devkit/ ↩︎

  4. Wong, W. G. (2022, May 17). Streamlining ROS 2 development on an FPGA soc. Electronic Design. https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/robotics/video/21241803/electronic-design-streamlining-ros-2-development-on-an-fpga-soc ↩︎

  5. Su, L. J. (2022, May 17). Edge ML and robotics critical for digitalization and industrial automation initiatives. Robotics Business Review. https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/rbr/edge-ml-and-robotics-critical-for-digitalization-and-industrial-automation-initiatives/ ↩︎

  6. Goodwins, R. (2022, May 16). RISC-V needs its own sector to compete. The Register: Enterprise Technology News and Analysis. https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/16/riscv_world_domination/ ↩︎

  7. Bailey, B. (2022, May 13). The challenge of optimizing chip architectures for workloads. Semiconductor Engineering. https://semiengineering.com/the-challenge-of-optimizing-chip-architectures-for-workloads/?cmid=e3595c29-04f2-43ff-bd99-65e710a17875 ↩︎

  8. New robots require new ways to think about processors. (2022, May 12). Semiconductor Engineering. https://semiengineering.com/new-robots-require-new-ways-to-think-about-processors/?cmid=e3595c29-04f2-43ff-bd99-65e710a17875 ↩︎

  9. Lassig, R., Lorenz, M., Sissimatos, E., Wicker, I., & Buchner, T. (2021, June 28). Robotics outlook 2030: How intelligence and mobility will shape the future. BCG Global. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2021/how-intelligence-and-mobility-will-shape-the-future-of-the-robotics-industry ↩︎

  10. Robinson, D. (2022, May 11). MIPS says first RISC-V chips coming in Q4 2022. The Register: Enterprise Technology News and Analysis. https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/11/mips_riscv_chips/ ↩︎

  11. Wayland, M. (2022, March 11). U.S. clears way for truly driverless vehicles without steering wheels. CNBC. https://www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/03/11/us-clears-way-for-driverless-vehicles-without-steering-wheels.html ↩︎