News

Industrial robot market to grow 5-7% out to 2027

Source: Robotics Business Review, June 28, 2023 [1]
Interact Analysis predicts this long-term growth will be mostly driven by demand from the electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing industry.

Semiconductor capex down in 2023

Source: Semiwiki, June 28, 2023 [2]
Semiconductor capital expenditures increased 35% in 2021 and 15% in 2022, with IC Insights predicting a 14% decline in 2023. Memory companies will experience a 19% drop, while Samsung will maintain its current level. Foundries will decrease CapEx by 11%, with TSMC leading the way. Intel plans a 19% cut, while Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, and Infineon Technologies will increase CapEx.

May 2023 robotics investments total US $526 million

Source: Robotics Business Review, July 3, 2023 [3]
Robotics investment for May 2023 amounted to $686 million, the result of 61 funding rounds. Total robotics investment for January 2023 through May 2023 equals approximately $4 billion.

AI tool builds fully functional CPU

Source: TechRound, July 5, 2023 [4]
In a groundbreaking breakthrough that promises to reshape the semiconductor industry, Chinese researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can design a fully functional central processing unit (CPU) in just under five hours. This breakthrough represents a leap forward in the pursuit of self-evolving machines, as the process performed by the AI is a staggering 1,000 times faster than a human team.

What type of robot should you use?

Source: The Robot Report, June 30, 2023 [5]
Manufacturers use a variety of robots in their operations, each with its own specific capabilities and functions. We’re discussing some of the most common types of robots used in manufacturing, and which one may work best for your application.

Nvidia reportedly mulls outsourcing partial AI GPU production to Samsung

Source: DIGITIMES, July 5, 2023 [6]
Nvidia is considering outsourcing AI GPU fabrication to Samsung Electronics due to tight capacity supply from TSMC. Samsung could potentially secure orders if its 3nm trial products pass performance validation and 2.5D advanced packaging technology meets Nvidia's requirements. The possibility of Samsung securing large-scale orders from Nvidia is low, but the US chipmaker may consider enlisting Samsung as a secondary foundry partner. The global GPU market scale is expected to grow to $33.463 billion by 2028, representing a 7.85% CAGR.

VMware leads push for confidential computing standards

Source: The Register, June 30, 2023 [7]
VMware, AMD, Samsung, and RISC-V community are working on an open, cross-platform framework for developing and operating applications using confidential computing hardware. The Certifier Framework for Confidential Computing project aims to standardize platform-independent developer APIs for application code development in confidential computing environments. The project includes AMD, Samsung, and the Keystone project, which is developing an enclave framework for confidential computing on RISC-V processors.

Custom FPGA-based cameras for rapid deployment of your next medical device project

Source: Vision Systems Design, March 23, 2023 [8]
Configurations are endless when modular hardware, custom FPGA design, parallel processing, multi-sensor and pixel/memory options combine in a single camera.

Papers

Source: Science Robotics, June 28, 2023 [9]
Semantic navigation is crucial for mobile robot deployment in uncontrolled environments like homes or hospitals. Learning-based approaches like end-to-end learning and modular learning enhance classical pipelines. A study comparing visual navigation methods across six homes found modular learning to be a reliable approach, with a 90% success rate in real-world situations.

Towards a ROS2-based software architecture for service robots

Source: Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics, February 22, 2023 [10]
This paper presents a scalable software architecture for service robots using robot operating system 2 (ROS2), which offers real-time operation, security, and performance enhancements. The architecture addresses task management and requires additional development effort for integrating new devices. It uses Python with multi-processing to avoid issues with global interrupt lock. The SeoulTech service robot (SSR) is tested on a Jetson Xavier NX board, demonstrating its capabilities.

Previous Hardware Acceleration in Robotics Newsletters

Past ROS 2 Hardware Acceleration Working Group meetings

  1. Wessling, B. (2023, June 28). Industrial robot market to grow 5-7% out to 2027. Robotics Business Review. https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/news/industrial-robot-market-to-grow-5-7-out-to-2027/ ↩︎

  2. Jewell, B. (2023, June 28). Semiconductor capex down in 2023. Semiwiki. https://semiwiki.com/uncategorized/331322-semiconductor-capex-down-in-2023/ ↩︎

  3. Kara, D. (2023, July 3). May 2023 robotics investments total US $526 million. Robotics Business Review. https://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/investment/may-2023-robotics-investments-total-686-million/ ↩︎

  4. TechRound Team. (2023, July 5). AI tool builds fully functional CPU. TechRound. https://techround.co.uk/news/ai-tool-builds-fully-functional-cpu/ ↩︎

  5. Content, S. (2023, June 30). What type of robot should you use? The Robot Report. https://www.therobotreport.com/what-type-of-robot-should-you-use/ ↩︎

  6. Tsai, S., & Ke, W. (2023, July 5). Nvidia reportedly mulls outsourcing partial AI GPU production to Samsung. DIGITIMES. https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20230705PD201/nvidia-ai-gpu-outsourcing-samsung-electronics-tsmc.html ↩︎

  7. Robinson, D. (2023, June 30). VMware leads push for confidential computing standards. The Register: Enterprise Technology News and Analysis. https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/30/confidential_computing_standards/?utm_source=daily&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=article ↩︎

  8. Custom FPGA-based cameras for rapid deployment of your next medical device project. (2023, March 23). Vision Systems Design. https://vision-systems.com/white-papers/whitepaper/14291384/custom-fpgabased-cameras-for-rapid-deployment-of-your-next-medical-device-project?utm_source=VSD+Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS230622093&o_eid=1735H8424478G3P&rdx.ident[pull]=omeda|1735H8424478G3P&oly_enc_id=1735H8424478G3P ↩︎

  9. Gervet, T., Chintala, S., Batra, D., Malik, J., & Singh, D. (2028, June 28). Navigating to objects in the real world. Science Robotics. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scirobotics.adf6991 ↩︎

  10. Jo, Y. H., Cho, S. Y., & Choi, B. W. (2023, February 22). Towards a ROS2-based software architecture for service robots. Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics. https://beei.org/index.php/EEI/article/view/5590 ↩︎