News

ROSCon 2023 talks

Source: ROSCon, November 9, 2023 [1]
The videos of the ROSCon 2023 talks are now available. ROSCon 2023 is a chance for ROS developers of all levels, beginner to expert, to spend an extraordinary two days learning from and networking with the ROS community.

The European Innovation Council has approved €1 billion in deep tech venture investments in one year

Source: European Commission, November 14, 2023 [2]
The Commission announced that nearly €1 billion of investments in deep tech companies have been approved by the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund since the Fund started its operations in September 2022.

California is the robotics capital of the world

Source: Robots & Startups , November 11, 2023 [3]
China has fewer robotics startups than the USA. The UK has more than Germany, France or Switzerland and other surprising facts about the real robotics revolution.

Agile robots acquires Franka Emika

Source: The Robot Report, November 14, 2023 [4]
German robotics developer Agile Robots is acquiring Franka Emika GmbH, two months after filing for preliminary insolvency. Agile will take over operations, keeping its 100-person staff, and plans to grow the company, which filed for insolvency due to shareholder differences.

An FPGA-to-ASIC case study for refining smart meter design

Source: EDN, November 9, 2023 [5]
FPGAs are often used in embedded system designs for prototyping or software development. However, they are often converted to ASICs for volume manufacturing. This process can be nearly automatic, but may be challenging if multiple chips are integrated or mixed-signal functions are needed.

Are robot chips the key to humanoid robots' development?

Source: CGTN, November 10, 2023 [6]
How important are chips to robots? How do they make robots smart, especially humanoid robots? At the sixth China International Import Expo, CGTN interviewed Shi Ying, the field application engineer director at Texas Instruments.

Intrinsic demonstrates interoperability framework integration with KEBA robot controller

Source: The Robot Report, November 14, 2023 [7]
Intrinsic Innovation LLC is building a software platform that it said will make robotics more accessible to developers. This week, the company is demonstrating how its real-time control framework can be integrated with KEBA Group AG’s robot controllers at the Smart Production Solutions, or SPS, trade fair.

Chinese AI and robotics companies spearhead digital transformation in the middle east

Source: China Money Network, November 11, 2023 [8]
China's AI companies, SenseTime and Terminus, are expanding globally, particularly in the Middle East. SenseTime, a Chinese AI company, has collaborated with local authorities to introduce inclusive AI educational courses and collaborated with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund to establish SenseTime MEA. Terminus, a Chinese AIoT service provider, built the 2020 Dubai Expo venue as a smart city using IoT logic.

Papers

Source: Aalborg University's Research Portal, 2023 [9]
The paper introduces a real-time human interaction detection system for mobile robots using RGB-D cameras. The system uses a convolutional neural network architecture and localizes human interactions in 3D scenes. It integrates these zones into robot navigation costmaps, allowing socially-aware navigation in human environments. The system has been validated through simulated and real-world tests.

Design and implementation of low-power, high-speed, reliable and secured hardware accelerator using 28 nm technology for biomedical devices

Source: ScienceDirect, October 10, 2023 [10]
This paper presents a Hardware Accelerator (HA) for Wireless Body Sensor Networks (WBSNs) using 28 nm technology on Zynq system-on-a-chip (SOC). The HA is implemented using Vivado and VITIS high-level synthesis tool, integrating with Xilinx tools. The HA improves 81% in speed compared to existing methods and enhances power and area of the WBSN, demonstrating the potential of 28 nm technology in wireless sensor networks.

Previous Hardware Acceleration in Robotics Newsletters

Past ROS 2 Hardware Acceleration Working Group meetings

  1. https://vimeo.com/showcase/roscon2023 ↩︎

  2. The European Innovation Council has approved €1 billion in deep tech venture investments in one year. (2023, November 14). European Commission. https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_5728 ↩︎

  3. Keay, A. (2023, November 11). California is the robotics capital of the world. Robots & Startups . https://249x.substack.com/p/california-is-the-robotics-capital ↩︎

  4. Wessling, B. (2023, November 14). Agile robots acquires Franka Emika. The Robot Report. https://www.therobotreport.com/agile-robots-acquires-franka-emika/ ↩︎

  5. Lai, B. (2023, October 9). An FPGA-to-ASIC case study for refining smart meter design. EDN. https://www.edn.com/an-fpga-to-asic-case-study-for-refining-smart-meter-design/ ↩︎

  6. CGTN. (2023, November 10). Are robot chips the key to humanoid robots' development? CGTN . https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-11-10/Are-robot-chips-the-key-to-humanoid-robots-development--1oBQfHHYXkc/index.html ↩︎

  7. The Robot Report Staff. (2023, November 14). Intrinsic demonstrates interoperability framework integration with KEBA robot controller. The Robot Report. https://www.therobotreport.com/intrinsic-demonstrates-integration-with-keba-robot-controller-at-smart-production-solutions/ ↩︎

  8. Chinese AI and robotics companies spearhead digital transformation in the middle east. (2023, November 11). China Money Network. https://www.chinamoneynetwork.com/2023/11/11/chinese-ai-and-robotics-companies-spearhead-digital-transformation-in-the-middle-eastChina's AI companies, SenseTime and Terminus, are expanding globally, particularly in the Middle East. SenseTime, a Chinese AI company, has collaborated with local authorities to introduce inclusive AI educational courses and collaborated with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund to establish SenseTime MEA. Terminus, a Chinese AIoT service provider, built the 2020 Dubai Expo venue as a smart city using IoT logic. ↩︎

  9. Schwörer, T., Schmidt, J. E., & Chrysostomou, D. (in press). Nav2CAN: Achieving Context Aware Navigation in
    ROS2 Using Nav2 and RGB-D sensing. In IEEE International Conference on Imaging Systems and Techniques
    (IST 2023) IEEE ↩︎

  10. Mavinkattimath, S., Khanai, R., Torse, D., & Iver, N. (2023, October 10). Design and implementation of low-power, high-speed, reliable and secured hardware accelerator using 28 nm technology for biomedical devices. ScienceDirect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1746809423009874 ↩︎