The VIA Robotics Initiative
The VIA Robotics Initiative is part of a greater effort in 2003 for VIA to participate within the robotics community, and to explore innovative new applications for VIA's "Total Connectivity" vision. VIA sees massive potential for growth in the robotics space through close cooperation between the software, hardware and mechanical engineering communities and the establishment of open development standards. The VIA Robotics Initiative is the first step by VIA to join in that cooperation and take on a leadership role in enabling the creation of highly integrated, low power, and open x86 platforms that will help drive future robotics innovation.
Robotics Today The maturation of key PC industry technologies, notably wireless networking and continued reductions in form factor and costs, is making it possible for robotics to begin to realize its full potential in commercial as well as industrial, space, and military environments. Efforts are also being made to create open and standard software implementations for key robotic control functions. Software projects like TheOROCOS(Open Robotic Control Software) Project aim to further promote the widespread development for robot projects and business opportunities.
The Right Robotics Development Platform With our highly acclaimed VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard series, VIA is able to offer an unrivaled range of highly integrated, low power, x86 platforms that are ideal for robotics designs. Available in a variety of processor speeds of up to 1GHz and packing in full set of advanced connectivity and digital media features, VIA EPIA Mini-ITX platforms deliver proven performance and functionality on a tiny, low power 17cm x 17cm footprint that can be integrated into highly compact enclosures.
|
|
The native x86 environment of the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX also provides a mature software development platform for both Microsoft Windows?and a variety of Linux operating systems, enabling the rapid and affordable implementation of new robotics applications. The VIA EPIA Mini-ITX also has an aggressive roadmap of new products, which include features such as dual LAN support, integrated compact flash and Card Bus, higher processing speeds and lower power and fan requirements. The rapidly evolving feature set of the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX will continue to expand the range of options and platforms suited for different autonomous vehicle and robotics applications.
VIA Technologies and Robotics Projects As part of VIA's leadership role in robotics we are working closely with academic and institutional projects that demonstrate the vision and capabilities in robotics and how robots deal with key issues such as navigation, mobility and design. Two such examples include:
SRI International Centibots Project This is a joint project with Stanford, University of Washington, and ActiveMedia Robotics, to design, implement and demonstrate a computational framework for the coordination of very large robot teams, consisting of at least 100 small, resource limited robots, on indoor reconnaissance tasks including mapping, tracking and guarding. The Centibots project is primarily funded by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in an effort to develop new technologies for urban surveillance through distributed robotics. The "Amigobots" are equipped with VIA EPIA 5000 Mini-ITX mainboards.
Ventures such as the Centibots project will have a far reaching influence on the way potentially dangerous tasks are handled such as bomb disposal, intruder detection, hostage or military actions, hazardous waste exposure and disposal, and searching earthquake, fire or chemically damaged sites - essentially any perilous complex task that presently might risk human lives.
The Centibot project robots operate autonomously, can intercommunicate with each other or a central server, and if one fails its task another can pick up from where the job is left undone.
The Centibots Project website:
http://www.ai.sri.com/centibots/
Virginia Tech's Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Team (AUVT) To further the engineers at Virginia Tech's practical experience in the field of robotics, AUVT was founded in January of 2001. The mission of AUVT is to provide a forum in which students can develop as engineers through the use of a design based competition, which requires a multidisciplinary approach. To that end, they are constructing and autonomous submarine that will compete in an underwater challenge course that requires self navigation and propulsion as well as target and object recognition.
The PC brains behind the AUVT submarine is a VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard, providing the key processing power for the necessary visual recognition software programs while minimizing the battery drain with the EPIA's low powerVIA C3 processor.
AUVT has grown into a team of nearly 50 students of several backgrounds, including Aerospace, Ocean, Electrical, Computer, Mechanical, and Industrial Engineers, Computer Scientists, and Business and Marketing students all interacting to fully design and compete in a collegiate competition sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI).
Justin Hayes is the team leader for AUVT. In an interview on VIA ARENA he gives excellent insight into the challenges faced of coordinating a project that requires cooperation between a variety of fields and how they came to chose VIA's EPIA Mini-ITX for their submarine.
Read the Justin Hayes interview here:
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=317
For more information about team AUVT be sure to visit their website: http://www.fbox.vt.edu/eng/aero/AUVT/index.html
Other VIA Robotics Projects:
Department of Industrial Electronics at the University of Minho in Portugal -A team of robots competing inRobotica 2003 in Lisbon.
|
The "DevilCat" -Chris Kern'shome made robot
|
Mobile Robotics -VIA is a proud sponsor of theMobile Robotics website. A community website for sharing resources and information about robotics.
|
For more information on the VIA Robotics Initiative please contactTimothyJBrown@via.com.tw. |