News

Nvidia works with TSMC, ASML and Synopsis on software to speed up chipmaking

Source: Fierce Electronics, March 21, 2023 [1]
Nvidia announced a cuLitho software library for computational lithography at GTC 2023 that will be deployed by TSMC for its fabrication work starting in June.

Keys to developing autonomous vehicle software

Source: Robotics Business Review, March 17, 2023 [2]
APEX.AI co-founder Dejan Pangercic discusses software development for autonomous vehicles.

NVIDIA is making AI easier to use

Source: The Robot Report, March 21, 2023 [3]
NVIDIA accelerated computing and CUOP have solved Lee and Lim's traveling salesman problem faster than any other solution, opening up a new world of capability for roboticists.

Microchip speeds design of FPGA-based satellite systems

Source: EE Times India, March 17, 2023 [4]
Microchip has combined its RT PolarFire FPGA with the development kit and interfaces for evaluating design concepts based on actual in-flight electrical and mechanical characteristics.

Finding 10x+ performance improvements in C++ with CodeQL – Part 2/2 on combining dynamic and static analysis for performance optimisation

Source: Sean Heelan's Blog, March 1, 2023 [5]
Static and dynamic analysis can be combined to create tools that are more useful than those focused on either analysis approach alone. Continuous profiling can be used to rank the output of static analysis, while static analysis can provide further context and make results more actionable.

So you want to do robots, step 4: Profit?

Source: General Robots, February 15, 2023 [6]
The most important idea is to prioritize what is "good enough" and what you want to make better.

Develop AI-powered robots, smart vision systems, and more with NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano developer kit

Source: NVIDIA Technical Blog, March 22, 2023 [7]
The NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Developer Kit sets a new standard for creating entry-level AI-powered robots, smart drones, and intelligent vision systems, as NVIDIA announced at NVIDIA GTC 2023. It also simplifies getting started with the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano series.

Smarter retail data analytics with GPU accelerated Apache spark workloads on Google cloud Dataproc

Source: NVIDIA Technical Blog, March 15, 2023 [8]
This post provides step-by-step instructions on how to get started with GPU acceleration on Spark workloads on Dataproc.

Papers

A self-rotating, single-actuated UAV with extended sensor field of view for autonomous navigation

Source: Science, March 15, 2023 [9]
PULSAR is a powered-flying ultra-underactuated LiDAR (light detection and ranging) sensing aerial robot that uses self-rotation to extend the sensor FoV without consuming extra power. It consumes 26.7% less power than the benchmarked quadrotor and can perform autonomous navigation in unknown environments and detect both static and dynamic obstacles in panoramic views without any external instruments. This could lead to increased perception capability, task efficiency, and flight safety.

A 2D-Lidar-Equipped unmanned robot-based approach for indoor human activity detection

Source: MDPI, February 24, 2023 [10]
This paper proposes to use a 2D LIDAR mounted on top of a cleaning robot to monitor elderly people living alone. Through continuous movement, the robot can identify if a person is laying on the ground after falling, even after a certain period from the fall event. A convolutional long short-term memory (LSTM) neural network is trained to classify the processed measurements and identify if a fall event occurs or has occurred. Through simulations, the system can achieve an accuracy equal to 81.2% in fall detection and 99% in the detection of lying bodies.

Previous Hardware Acceleration in Robotics Newsletters

  • Hardware Acceleration in Robotics #51 - PRESS RELEASE: Peer Robotics partners with Acceleration Robotics to bring hardware acceleration to their collaborative AMR, ROS 2 Hardware Acceleration Working Group #16 and more
  • Hardware Acceleration in Robotics #50 - How the EU chips act could build "Innovation capacity" in Europe, How Efinix is conquering the hurdle of hardware acceleration for devices at the edge and more
  • Hardware Acceleration in Robotics #49 - ROS 2 HAWG - meeting #15, 600 for-profit companies using ROS and ROS 2, Acceleration Robotics is growing, January 2023 robotics investments total US $521 million and more
  • Hardware Acceleration in Robotics #48 - RobotPerf, benchmarking interest for robots grows, Acceleration Robotics announces the 1st meeting of the Architectures and Processors Working Group (GTAP) of the AESEMI and more
  • Hardware Acceleration in Robotics #47 - ROS 2 HAWG #15, 2022 ROS 2 metrics report, Robot sales reach a new high in 2022, When will the mobile robot market consolidate? and more
  • Hardware Acceleration in Robotics #46 - China overtakes USA in robot density, 3 ways semiconductors enhance automation and efficiency, 10 industries China is focusing on automating and more
  • Hardware Acceleration in Robotics #45 - ROS 2 HAWG - meeting #14, What slowdown? - December 2022 robotics investments reaches $1.14B and more
  • Hardware Acceleration in Robotics #44 - ROS developers meet-up organised by acceleration robotics, China unveils new plan for wider robot use from manufacturing to agriculture and more
  • Hardware Acceleration in Robotics #43 - ROS 2 HAWG#14, Acceleration robotics joins AESEMI to lead new processor architectures, ROS 2 HAWG in 2022 and more
  • Hardware Acceleration in Robotics #42 - Can the U.S. bring chip manufacturing home?, The best tech of CES 2023, Teaching old robots new tricks and more

Past ROS 2 Hardware Acceleration Working Group meetings

  1. Hamblen, M. (2023, March 21). Nvidia works with TSMC, ASML and Synopsis on software to speed up chipmaking. Fierce Electronics. https://www.fierceelectronics.com/electronics/nvidia-works-tsmc-asml-and-synopsis-software-speed-chipmaking ↩︎

  2. Oitzman, M. (2023, March 17). Keys to developing autonomous vehicle software. Robotics Business Review. https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/autonomous-transportation/keys-to-developing-autonomous-vehicle-software/?spMailingID=86319&puid=2502618&E=2502618&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=86319 ↩︎

  3. Oitzman, M. (2023, March 21). NVIDIA is making AI easier to use. The Robot Report. https://www.therobotreport.com/nvidia-is-making-ai-easier-to-use/ ↩︎

  4. Microchip speeds design of FPGA-based satellite systems. (2023, March 17). EE Times India. https://www.eetindia.co.in/microchip-speeds-design-of-fpga-based-satellite-systems/ ↩︎

  5. Finding 10x+ performance improvements in C++ with CodeQL – Part 2/2 on combining dynamic and static analysis for performance optimisation. (2023, March 1). Sean Heelan's Blog. https://sean.heelan.io/2023/03/01/finding-10x-performance-improvements-in-c-with-codeql-part-2-2-on-combining-dynamic-and-static-analysis-for-performance-optimisation/ ↩︎

  6. Holson, B. (2023, February 15). So you want to do robots, step 4: Profit? General Robots | Benjie Holson | Substack. https://generalrobots.substack.com/p/so-you-want-to-do-robots-step-4-profit ↩︎

  7. Subramaniam, L., & Hariharapura, S. (2023, March 22). Develop AI-powered robots, smart vision systems, and more with NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano developer kit. NVIDIA Technical Blog. https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/develop-ai-powered-robots-smart-vision-systems-and-more-with-nvidia-jetson-orin-nano-developer-kit/ ↩︎

  8. Agarwal, S. (2023, March 15). Smarter retail data analytics with GPU accelerated Apache spark workloads on Google cloud Dataproc. NVIDIA Technical Blog. https://developer.nvidia.com/blog/smarter-retail-data-analytics-with-gpu-accelerated-apache-spark-workloads-on-google-cloud-dataproc/ ↩︎

  9. Chen, N., Kong, F., Xu, W., Cai, Y., Li, H., He, D., Qin, Y., & Zhang, F. (2023, March 15). A self-rotating, single-actuated UAV with extended sensor field of view for autonomous navigation. Science | AAAS. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.ade4538 ↩︎

  10. Bouazizi, M., Lorite, A., & Ohtsuki, T. (2023, February 24). A 2D-Lidar-Equipped unmanned robot-based approach for indoor human activity detection. MDPI. https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/5/2534 ↩︎