Parrot S.L.A.M Dunk is a Ubuntu & ROS Computer with 3D Depth Cameras for Drones & Robots

Parrot and Canonical have partnered to develop the Parrot S.L.A.M.dunk development kit for the design of applications for autonomous navigation, obstacle avoidance, indoor navigation and 3D mapping for drones and robots, and running both Ubuntu 14.04 and ROS operating systems. The name of the kit is derived from its “Simultaneous Localization and Mapping algorithm” (S.L.A.M) allowing for location without GPS signal. Parrot S.L.A.M Dunk preliminary specifications: SoC – NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor Camera – Fish-eye stereo camera with a 1500×1500 resolution at 60fps Sensors – Inertial-measurement unit (IMU), ultrasound sensor up to 15 meters range, magnetometer, barometer Video Output – micro HDMI USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 port, 1x USB 3.0/2.0 port Weight – 140 grams Parrot S.L.A.M dunk can be fitted various drones and robotic platforms such as quadcopters and fixed-wings, rolling robots and articulated arms using mounting kits. The computer module is then connected to the host […]

Intel Unveils Joule Compute Module and Devkit for IoT based on Atom T5500 & T5700 Processors

As the Intel Developer Forum 2016 is now taking place in San Francisco, Intel has unveiled the Joule Compute Module and development kit targeting IoT applications. The module is not for low cost and low power sensor nodes however, as it features a powerful quad core Atom processor running at 1.5+ GHz, so it more suited to IoT gateways, or other application requiring lots of processing power to handle sensor data. Two models of the Joule module have been introduced: Intel Joule 570x platform SoC – Intel Atom T5700 64-bit quad-core processor @ 1.7 GHz / 2.4 GHz (Burst frequency) with Intel HD Graphics with 4K video capture and display System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 RAM Storage – 16GB eMMC memory Connectivity – 802.11ac Wi-Fi with MIMO and Bluetooth 4.1 Other interfaces –  USB 3.0, MPI CSI and DSI interfaces, and multiple GPIO, I2C, UART interfaces Intel Joule 550x platform […]

Autonomous Deep Learning Robot Features Nvidia Jetson TK1 Board, a 3D Camera, and More

Autonomous, a US company that makes smart products such as smart desks, virtual reality kits and autonomous robots, has recently introduced a deep learning robot that comes with a 3D camera, speaker and microphone, Jetson TK1 board, and a mobile base. The robot appears to be mostly made of the shelves parts: 3D Depth camera – Asus Xtion Pro 3D Depth Camera Speaker & Microphone Nvidia Jetson TK1 PM375 board – Nvidia Terra K1 quad-core Cortex A15 processor @ 2.3 GHz with a 192-core Kepler GPU, 2GB RAM, 16 GB flash Kobuki Mobile Base –  Kobuki is the best mobile base designed for education and research on state of the art robotics. Kobuki provides power supplies for external computer power as well as additional sensors and actuators. Its highly accurate odometry, amended by calibrated gyroscope, enables precise navigation. The robot is designed for research in deep learning and mobile robotics, […]

BeagleBone Blue Board is Designed for Robots and UAVs

Beagleboard.org organization already tried to go Blue with BeagleBone BlueSteel-Basic that was supposed to a the single board computer to be used by OEM to integrate into their design instead of BeagleBone Black development board. For some unknown reasons this never happened, but they’ve now reused the color to introduce BeagleBone Blue board designed for robotics and UAVs. BeagleBone Blue specifications: SoC – Texas Instruments Sitara AM3358 Cortex A8 @ 1 GHz + PowerVR SGX530 GPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – 4 GB 8-bit on-board flash storage Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE USB – USB 2.0 client and host Motor Control – 8x 6V servo out, 4x DC motor out, 4x quad enc in Sensors – 9 axis IMU, barometer “Easy connect Interfaces” – GPS, DSM2 radio, UARTs, SPI, I2C, analog, buttons, LEDs Power / Battery – 2-cell LiPo support with balancing, 6-16V charger input […]

Gumstix Announces Solution Kits for their CPU Modules and Boards

Gumstix has recently unveiled several solution kits featuring their Overo and DuoVero Computer-on-Modules (CoMs), Pepper single board computer, and several expansions boards, together with required accessories, and software packages, in order to help their customers getting started more easily. All these solutions are based on Texas Instruments OMAP3, OMAP4, and/or Sitara processors, and run Linux (Ubuntu or Yocto), and sometimes Android for the kits with displays. The solutions kits target 6 different types of applications and/or markets: Robotics Robotic Development Kit (Pictured above) with one Overo AirSTORM CoM (OMAP3703), and RoboVero expansion board. The kit is better suited for motor control applications. Mobile Robotic Development Kit with one Overo AirSTORM CoM, and Turtlecore expansion board to be used with iRobot Create. The kits ship with a Linaro (Ubuntu for Overo) system card and Robot Operating System (ROS) pre-installed. Handhelds 3.5″ Handheld Development Kit featuring Overo AirSTORM CoM with Alto35 cutomizable […]

Gumstix Alto35 Customizable Touchscreen Board

A few months ago, Gumstix introduced Geppeto, a web platform that allows you to design and order your own baseboard for Gumstix Overo systems-on-module within minutes. The company has just announced Alto35, an expansion board built entirely with Geppetto. The Alto35 replaces Palo35 Overo-series expansion board with the same features, but adding the possibility of customizing the board via Geppetto. Alto34 expansions board features the following: 3.5″ LCD resistive touch screen Stereo audio in/out jacks 3D accelerometer (STMicro LIS33DE) RC servo USB – 2x USB mini-B ports, including console port (FT232RQ USB UART) LEDs in 4 different colors, 2 tactile switches. 2×70-pin AVX Headers compatible with Overo COMs. Power – 3.5V-5V All Overo computers-on-module are compatible with Alto35 board, so you can just use existing software solutions such as Linaro Ubuntu, Robot Operating System, and the Yocto Project. Alto35 is available for $89 including the display (not the Overo module), […]

A Selection of FOSDEM 2013 Events

FOSDEM is a 2-day (or 3 if you include Friday beer event) event where over 5,000 members of open source communities meet, share ideas and collaborate. It’s free to attend, and there’s no registration, so you just show up to attend. FOSDEM 2013 takes place on Feb 2-3 (yep, this week-end) in Brussels There are 7 main tracks where sessions are organized: Operating systems Open source challenges Security Janson Beyond operating systems Web development Miscellaneous Robotics There are also keynotes and devroom for a total of 488 sessions. Developers rooms that may particularly be of interest to readers of this blog are: Cross Desktop devroom – e.g. Wayland, gstreamer, razor-qt, Qt Project, Plasma Active, etc… Cross Distro devroom – e.g. Linux on Android, suse on ARM, ARMv8, systemd, etc… Embedded and mobile devroom – e.g. Baserock Embedded Linux, Guacamayo (Yocto), Nemo Mobile/ Mer project, arduino… All in all that’s a […]

Gumstix TurtleCore Expansion Board for iRobot Create

Last month, Gumstix announced the TurtleCore expansion board for iRobot Create Programmable Robot, featuring 3 USB ports, several male-header pins with GPIO access, as well as standoffs and screws to support the TurtleCore in the Create cargo bay.. The TurtleCore is a baseboard for TI OMAP3 and Sitara based Overo COMs or Overo STORM series of COMs that replaces the Command Module on iRobot Create to provide a more flexible and powerful solution. Overo COMs have very good Linux support (OpenEmbedded) with source code, tools and documentation available, including support for the Robot Operating System (GumROS) for high level programming. They released the hardware early so that the community could work on the software, and there have been some good progress as you can see from the video below. You can already download the schematics and PCB layout file, but the software and instructions do not appear to be available […]

EmbeddedTS embedded systems design