ROS 2 Hardware Acceleration Working Group

ROS 2 Hardware Acceleration Working Group - meeting #15

Source: ROS Discourse, February 28, 2023 [1]
We discussed the Robotics MCU (robo-v-mcu) project, RobotPerf benchmarking updates and REP-2014 contributions.

News

600 for-profit companies using ROS and ROS 2

Source: GitHub/vmayoral, March 1, 2023 [^14]
A public list of companies that are known to use the Robot Operating System (ROS and ROS 2) or any of its related tools for development, to create products or to offer services.

There are also lists for companies known to use the ROS Navigation stack and ROS 2 Nav2 Framework and ROS Manipulation stack (MoveIt).

Acceleration Robotics is growing

Source: Acceleration Robotics, March 1, 2023 [2]
Join us to build semiconductor building blocks for robots while using leading hardware acceleration technologies.

January 2023 robotics investments total US $521 million

Source: Robotics Business Review, February 28, 2023 [3]
Robotics investments for the month of January 2023 totaled US $521M, the result of 41 investments. Firms providing robotics solutions for autonomous ground transportation such as sensors, autonomy ‘stacks’ and ‘drivers’, and autonomous platforms, was particularly strong.

Biden’s chip war with China is an imperial struggle for high-tech supremacy

Source: Truthout, February 28, 2023 [4]
The U.S. and China are at loggerheads over everything from military supremacy in the Indo-Pacific to trade and investment in the Global South, with microchips at the center of the conflict.

Semiconductor Fabs: Construction challenges in the United States

Source: McKinsey & Company, January 27, 2023 [5]
Major semiconductor players have undertaken and announced US-based fab construction projects, and more are under consideration. Here’s a road map for moving ahead.

Bleak year for semiconductors

Source: Semiwiki, February 22, 2023 [6]
The global semiconductor market in 2022 was $573.5 billion, up 3.2% from 2021. Objective Analysis was the most accurate forecast with a 6% forecast released in December 2021. WSTS was second with an 8.8% forecast in November 2021. The top 15 semiconductor suppliers collectively had a 14% decline in revenue in 4Q 2022, led by memory companies with a 25% decline and non-memory companies with a 9% decline.

Robots to do 39% of domestic chores by 2033, say experts

Source: BBC News, February 22, 2023 [7]
Researchers from the UK and Japan asked 65 artificial intelligence (AI) experts to predict the amount of automation in common household tasks in 10 years. They found that grocery shopping was likely to see the most automation, while caring for the young or old was the least likely to be impacted by AI. The tasks which experts thought automation could do varied, with only 28% of care work predicted to be automated. However, predictions that robots will free us from domestic chores have a long history and some scepticism may be warranted.

Hardware security in medical devices has not been a priority - but it should be

Source: Semiwiki, February 21, 2023 [8]
Rapid advances in medical technology have made hospitals more vulnerable to cyberattacks, with an average of 1,426 cyberattacks per month in 2022. Cyber criminals use medical devices as a way to access network infrastructure, but semiconductor chips have security vulnerabilities that can be exploited.

Semiconductor industry: To Hell with the environment, start building fabs already

Source: The Register, February 28, 2023 [9]
The semiconductor industry is seeking to bypass US environmental protection rules to speed up fab construction, warning the US government that delays could derail the CHIPS Act.

Intel accelerates 5G leadership with new products

Source: Intel Corporation, February 27, 2023 [10]
At MWC 2023, Intel showcases support from leading operators, OEMs and ISVs for new silicon and software as it highlights that nearly all vRAN and virtualized network core deployments run on Intel.

NVIDIA announces financial results for 4th quarter and fiscal 2023

Source: HPCwire, February 23, 2023 [11]
NVIDIA reported GAAP earnings per diluted share of $0.57, down 52% from a year ago and up 111% from the previous quarter, and non-GAAP earnings of $3.34, down 25%. AI is at an inflection point, and NVIDIA is taking advantage of breakthroughs in generative AI and large language models.

Papers

FPGA-based vehicle detection and tracking accelerator

Source: MDPI, February 16, 2023 [12]
This research design and implement a low-power, low-latency, high-precision, and configurable vehicle detector based on a field programmable gate array (FPGA). Results show that compressed YOLOv3 models decrease in size by 85.7% and 98.2%, respectively.

Implementation of FPGA - robust deep learning acceleration platform

Source: jespublication, 2023 [13]
DLAU is a scalable accelerator architecture for large-scale deep learning networks using FPGA to boost performance and preserve low power consumption.

Previous Hardware Acceleration in Robotics Newsletters

Past ROS 2 Hardware Acceleration Working Group meetings

  1. https://discourse.ros.org/t/hardware-acceleration-wg-meeting-15/29767/3 ↩︎

  2. Acceleration robotics is growing. (2023, March 1). Hardware Acceleration in Robotics. https://news.accelerationrobotics.com/acceleration-robotics-is-growing/ ↩︎

  3. Kara, D. (2023, February 28). January 2023 robotics investments total US $521 million. Robotics Business Review. https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/manufacturing/january-2023-robotics-investments-total-us-521-million/ ↩︎

  4. Smith, A. (2023, February 28). Biden’s chip war with China is an imperial struggle for high-tech supremacy. Truthout. https://truthout.org/articles/bidens-chip-war-with-china-is-an-imperial-struggle-for-high-tech-supremacy/ ↩︎

  5. Semiconductor Fabs: Construction challenges in the United States. (2023, January 27). McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/industrials-and-electronics/our-insights/semiconductor-fabs-construction-challenges-in-the-united-states ↩︎

  6. Jewell, B. (2023, February 22). Bleak year for semiconductors. Semiwiki. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://semiwiki.com/semiconductor-services/semiconductor-intelligence/325070-bleak-year-for-semiconductors/ ↩︎

  7. Robots to do 39% of domestic chores by 2033, say experts. (2023, February 22). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-64718842 ↩︎

  8. Kuehlmann, A. (2023, February 21). Hardware security in medical devices has nota been a priority - but it should be. Semiwiki. Retrieved March 1, 2023, from https://semiwiki.com/security/cycuity/324955-hardware-security-in-medical-devices-has-not-been-a-priority-but-it-should-be/ ↩︎

  9. Robinson, D. (2023, February 28). Don't let environmental issues delay Fabs – chip industry. The Register: Enterprise Technology News and Analysis. https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/28/environmental_delays_chips_act/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=article ↩︎

  10. Intel accelerates 5G leadership with new products. (2023, February 27). Intel Corporation. https://www.intc.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1606/intel-accelerates-5g-leadership-with-new-products ↩︎

  11. NVIDIA announces financial results for 4th quarter and fiscal 2023. (2023, February 23). HPCwire. https://www.hpcwire.com/off-the-wire/nvidia-announces-financial-results-for-fourth-quarter-and-fiscal-2023/ ↩︎

  12. Zhai, J., Li, B., Lv, S., & Zhou, Q. (2023, February 16). FPGA-based vehicle detection and tracking accelerator. MDPI. https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/4/2208 ↩︎

  13. Vardhan, V., & Krishna, P. M. (2023). Implementation of FPGA - robust deep learning acceleration platform. jespublication. https://jespublication.com/upload/2023-V14I111.pdf ↩︎