ARCO is a Real Robot that Lives in Virtual Worlds (Crowdfunding)

ARCO ROVER AR Robot

Hicat launched HICAT.Livera machine vision board for robotics projects on Kickstarter two year ago. The company second project is still related to robotics and machine vision, but geared towards a different target audience, as ARCO robot aims to offer an augmented reality gaming experience to kids, although it’s still hackable/customizable as we’ll see below. The hardware part is mostly comprised of ARCO ROVER robot, and a Bluetooth controller that can be stored in ARCO’s inner capsule, where it recharges and communicates with ARCO through a magnetic pogo connection joint.  The listed specifications are rather limited: ARCO ROVER Bluetooth connectivity (nRF52 WiSoC) 10 RGB LEDs Battery – Good for about one hour Power Supply – Via USB type C port Dimensions – 8.9 x 7 x 6.5 cm Weight – ~180 grams Controller Bluetooth (nRF52) Sensor – 3-axis accelerometer for motion detection Trigger and rocker Battery – Good for about one […]

PIXY2 Computer Vision Camera Works with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and Other Boards

PIXY2 Camera

Cameras may be used to take holiday photos, but when integrated into robotics projects there may purpose is usually to detect objects and/or patterns. We’ve previously covered specialized computer vision camera such as the Linux based JeVois camera powered by Allwinner A33 processor,  HICAT.Livera machine vision board, or STMicro STM32F7 Arm Cortex M7 powered OpenMV Cam M7 open source computer vision board. Another popular option is PixyCam PIXY camera that was first launched via a Kickstarter campaign in 2013. The company has recently introduced an updated version, aptly named PIXY2, which can still detect objects – just faster at 60 fps-, and also includes new algorithms to detect and track lines or barcodes. PIXY2 camera specifications: MCU – NXP LPC4330 dual core Arm Cortex M4/M0 @ up to  204 MHz with 264KB RAM, 2MB flash Image sensor – OnSemi  (previously Aptina) MT9M114  1296×976 resolution with integrated image flow processor Lens […]

Lanner NVA-3000 Machine Vision Computer is Equipped with 8 PoE+ Ports

Lanner Electronics, a company headquartered in Taiwan, and specializing in   network appliances and rugged industrial computers, has recently introduced NVA-3000 embedded computer powered by Intel Pentium N4200 or Atom x7-E3950 “Apollo Lake” processor, and targeting video surveillance & machine vision applications with 8 PoE+ ports. Lanner NVA-3000 specifications: SoC Model NVA-3000A – Intel Pentium N4200 quad core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.10 / 2.50 Hz with 18 EU Intel HD graphics 505; 6W TDP Model NVA-3000B – Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.60 / 2.00 GHz with 18 EU Intel HD graphics 505; 12W TDP System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 2400MHz via 1x SO-DIMM slot Storage 32Mbit SPI Flash for BIOS, 2x SATA ports, 1x 3.5″ SATA/SSD drive bay, eMMC flash Model NVA-3000A – 8GB capacity Model NVA-3000B – 64GB capacity Network Connectivity Ethernet controller – Intel I210IT, I210IS, Marvell 88E6390 Ethernet Switch, 88E1512 PHY 2x […]

GAPUINO GAP8 is a $229 RISC-V MCU Developer Kit for A.I. Applications

GAPuino Board

GreenWaves GAP8 is a low power RISC-V “MCU class” processor with eight compute cores optimized for artificial intelligence applications, and its main selling point is the ability to do tasks like computer vision or audio processing at very low power, even good enough to run on batteries. When we first covered GAP8 RISC-V processor at the beginning of the year, the company also mentioned a development kit comprised of GAPDUINO Arduino compatible board, a sensor board, and a QVGA camera module to experiment with the solution.  The board and development kit are now easier to purchase as the devkit is sold on SeeedStudio for $229. GAPuino board specifications: SoC – GAP8 IoT Application Processor with 8x RISC-V  compute cores, 1x RISC-V fabric controller core delivering up to 200 MOPS at 1mW and  >8 GOPS at a few tens of mW Memory / Storage –  HyperBus combo DRAM/Flash with 512 Mbit […]

NanoCOM-APL Apollo Lake COM Express Module is Designed for Machine Vision & Factory Automation

AAEON has just launched  NanoCOM-APL, a Type 10 COM Express module based on Intel Apollo Lake Atom, Celeron, or Pentium processor with up to 8 LPDDR4 memory, and on-board support for dual MIPI CSI interfaces. The module is designed for machine vision and factory automation, and also features Gigabit Ethernet, optional on-board eMMC flash, PCIe x4, ten USB interfaces, and more. NanoCOM-APL Apollo Lake COM Express Module There are currently three variants of NanoCOM-APL module with the following specifications specifications: SoC NANOCOM-APL-A10-0001 – Intel Pentium N4200 quad core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.10 / 2.50 GHz with Intel HD Graphics 505; 6W TDP NANOCOM-APL-A10-0002 – Intel Celeron N3350 dual core Apollo Lake processor @ 1.10 / 2.40 GHz with Intel HD Graphics 500; 6W TDP NANOCOM-APL-A10-0003 – Intel Atom x7-E3950 quad core Apollo Lake-I processor @ 1.60 / 2.00 GHz with Intel HD Graphics 505; 12W TDP System Memory – […]

AAEON Releases an Intelligent Vending Machine Development Kit based on UP Board

Vending-Machine-Reference-Design

UP board is a low cost development board powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8350 Cherry Trail processor with 1GB to 4GB RAM, and 16 to 64GB eMMC flash that mostly follows Raspberry Pi 3 form factor. AAEON is now offering an “intelligent vending development kit” featuring UP board together with a vending machine controller (VMC) board, a motor for the machine’s internal mechanisms, a camera, a QR Code device, and all the necessary cables, as well as optional WiFi and Bluetooth modules. Some details about AIOT-MSSP01 Mini SSP Vending control board: “Intel Intelligent Vending Based” Motor Control – 24V or 12V, Supports GPIO, DC, PWM Type, Supports up to 160 DC Motors Support LCD and Keypad Feature I/Os Vending machine specific interfaces / standards 1x MDB (MultiDrop Bus) 1x DEX (Digital EXchange) 1x Protocol A (EXE) 1x 1-WIRE 4-channel ADC x 1 4-channel Relay GPIO for 12V & 5V by […]

Google AIY Projects Kits are Easier to Use in 2018 with Raspberry Pi Zero WH and All Accessories Included

Google launched two AIY Projects kits last year with a Voice Kit that took a Raspberry Pi 3 to create a smart speaker, and a Vision kit for hardware accelerated computer vision using a Raspberry Pi Zero W board. Google reports the kits are popular, especially for STEM education,  but educators/parents had to buy the Raspberry Pi boards and micro SD cards themselves, as well as flash the firmware to the cards. So the company decided to redesign both kits to work with the Raspberry Pi Zero WH (RPi Zero W with headers), and include it inside the box with cable and pre-provisioned SD card, so kids can get started faster with experimentation with having to setup the kits. So that means we now have AIY Projects Voice Kit v2 with RPi Zero WH and micro SD card with firmware, as well as  AIY Projects Vision Kit v1.1 with RPi Zero […]

VIA SOM-9X20 Module Powers Smart Recognition and Smart Machine Vision Platforms

At the end of last year, VIA launched SOM-9X20 system-on-module powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor coupled with 4GB PoP LPDDR4 RAM, 64 GB eMMC flash, as well as WiFi + Bluetooth module, and a GNSS/GPS receiver. The company introduced two software platform for the SoM and development kit at embedded world 2018: a Smart Machine Vision Platform for manufacturing management and control systems, and a Smart Recognition Platform for facial recognition, object detection, people counting & tracking, etc… VIA SOM-9X20 module specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 quad- core processor with 2x high-performance Kryo cores up to 2.15GHz, 2x low power Kryo cores up to 1.593GHz, and Adreno 530 GPU supporting OpenGL ES 3.1/ GEP, GL4.4, DX11.3/ 4, OpenCL 2.0, Renderscript-Next System Memory – 4 GB POP LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 64 GB eMMC 5.1/ UFS 2.0 flash On-module Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 a/ b/ g/ n/ ac + Bluetooth […]

UP 7000 x86 SBC