News

Working with robots can make humans put in less effort

Source: New Scientist, October 18, 2023 [1]
Robots that do their job reliably can cause humans who work alongside them to be less diligent because of a phenomenon called social loafing.

Google and Qualcomm team up for wearable devices chip

Source: Silicon Republic, October 18, 2023 [2]
The new chip powered by open-source RISC-V technology could help level the playing field in the contentious semiconductor space.

Why AMD’s upcoming chips won’t be the savior AI startups are hoping for

Source: The Information, October 11, 2023 [3]
Sharon Zhou, cofounder of Lamini, revealed using over 100 chips from Advanced Micro Devices for the past year, sparking excitement among AI founders and investors. This news suggests AMD could capitalize on the demand for AI chips, potentially taking market share from Nvidia.

Tormach to unveil cutting-edge real-time motion control in ROS at ROSCon 2023

Source: Robotics & Automation News, October 12, 2023 [4]
Tormach, a US-based CNC machine and industrial robot manufacturer, will make its inaugural appearance at ROSCon 2023, taking place in New Orleans from October 18 to 20.

Startups in the robotics industry

Source: Robotics & Automation News, October 13, 2023 [5]
Every robotics startup starts with just a clever idea. A clever idea that will bring technology to a specific industry, use case or application and answer the growing need for automation, due in particular to worldwide human aging and the labor shortage it creates, but also for re- and nearshoring demand based on global supply-chain issues.

Chip industry talent shortage drives academic partnerships

Source: Semiconductor Engineering, October 16, 2023 [6]
Universities, companies, and governments are forming broad partnerships to update skills and foster innovation in chips, security, AI, and related fields.

US to enforce new restrictions on China chips

Source: E+T Magazine, October 318 2023 [7]
The Biden administration has announced further measures preventing the sale of advanced semiconductor technology to China, including Nvidia’s AI chips.

RISC-V wants all your cores

Source: Semiconductor Engineering, October 12, 2023 [8]
It is not enough to want to dominate the world of CPUs. RISC-V has every core in its sights, and it’s starting to take steps to get there.

Papers

Toward composing efficient FPGA-based hardware accelerators for physics-based model predictive control smart sensor for HEV battery cell management

Source: IEEE Xplore, October 3, 2023 [9]
The depletion of fossil resources and climate change necessitate the development of sustainable transportation systems, such as hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Battery technology is crucial for HEVs, and model predictive control (MPC) and physics-based model (PBM) can help extend battery life. However, the computational complexity of physics-based MPC makes it infeasible for portable BMS on resource-constrained embedded devices. This research introduces a novel FPGA-based embedded hardware accelerator for PB-MPC smart sensors, achieving a 58 times speedup compared to its software counterpart and maintaining a small footprint for portable systems.

MICP-L: Mesh-based ICP for robot localization using hardware-accelerated ray casting

Source: ResearchGate, September 26, 2023 [10]
Mesh ICP Localization (MICP-L) is a computationally efficient method for robots to accurately localize themselves in 6D environments, even in GPS-denied ones. It uses range sensors to register them to a triangle mesh map, accelerating computation of ray casting correspondences. The approach is applicable in real-time on various target architectures and is demonstrated with datasets from agriculture, drones, and automotive domains.

Previous Hardware Acceleration in Robotics Newsletters

Past ROS 2 Hardware Acceleration Working Group meetings

  1. Sparkes, M. (2023, October 18). Working with robots can make humans put in less effort. New Scientist. https://www.newscientist.com/article/2397628-working-with-robots-can-make-humans-put-in-less-effort/ ↩︎

  2. Darmody, J. (2023, October 18). Google and Qualcomm team up for wearable devices chip. Silicon Republic. https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/google-qualcomm-chip-wearable-devices ↩︎

  3. Palazzolo, S. (2023, October 11). Why AMD’s upcoming chips won’t be the savior AI startups are hoping for. The Information. https://www.theinformation.com/articles/why-amds-upcoming-chips-wont-be-the-savior-ai-startups-are-hoping-for ↩︎

  4. Allinson, M. (2023, October 12). Tormach to unveil cutting-edge real-time motion control in ROS at ROSCon 2023. Robotics & Automation News. https://roboticsandautomationnews.com/2023/10/12/tormach-to-unveil-cutting-edge-real-time-motion-control-in-ros-at-roscon-2023/72945/ ↩︎

  5. Edwards, D. (2023, October 13). Startups in the robotics industry. Robotics & Automation News. https://roboticsandautomationnews.com/2023/10/13/startups-in-the-robotics-industry/73025/ ↩︎

  6. Allan, L. (2023, October 16). Chip industry talent shortage drives academic partnerships. Semiconductor Engineering. https://semiengineering.com/chip-industry-talent-shortage-drives-academic-partnerships/?cmid=d63df6e1-afcd-440e-ad0b-51efc3f51031 ↩︎

  7. Valero de Urquia, B. (2023, October 18). US to enforce new restrictions on China chips. E+T Magazine. https://eandt.theiet.org/content/articles/2023/10/us-sets-new-restrictions-on-china-chips/ ↩︎

  8. Bailey, B. (2023, October 12). RISC-V wants all your cores. Semiconductor Engineering. https://semiengineering.com/risc-v-wants-all-your-cores/?cmid=83a0609a-8f5d-4772-abb4-65dd1a5c5c25 ↩︎

  9. Madsen, A. K., & Perera, D. G. (2023, October 3). Toward composing efficient FPGA-based hardware accelerators for physics-based model predictive control smart sensor for HEV battery cell management. IEEE Xplore. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=10262302 ↩︎

  10. Mock, A., Wiemann, T., Putz, S., & Hertzberg, J. (2023, September 26). MICP-L: Mesh-based ICP for robot localization using hardware-accelerated ray casting. ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexander-Mock-5/publication/364732894_MICP-L_Mesh-based_ICP_for_Robot_Localization_using_Hardware-Accelerated_Ray_Casting/links/6512cc2437d0df2448edc899/MICP-L-Mesh-based-ICP-for-Robot-Localization-using-Hardware-Accelerated-Ray-Casting.pdf ↩︎