Qualcomm Introduces Robotic RB3 Platform And Integrated 5G Mobile Platform

Qualcomm through its subsidiary Qualcomm Technologies launched its first integrated robotic platform named Robotics RB3.

The new robotic platform is based on Qualcomm SDA/SDM845 system-on-chip (SoC). The key features and capabilities introduced in RB3 Robotics platform are high-performance heterogeneous computing, 4G/LTE connectivity including CBRS support for private LTE networks, a Qualcomm® AI Engine for on-device machine learning and computer vision, hi-fidelity sensor processing for perception, odometry for localization, mapping, and navigation, vault-like security, and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Executive Opinion

Director of business development and head of autonomous robotics, drones and intelligent machines at Qualcomm Technologies, Dev Singh, said, “Our technologies are at the heart of a wide array of robotics products available today, from companion robots including Anki Vector, Elli Q and Sony Aibo, to multimedia robots like Cerevo Tripon and Keecker, to labor-saving machines such as robotic vacuum cleaners from iRobot, Ecovacs, and Panasonic. With the Qualcomm Robotics RB3 Platform, we aim to bring our cutting-edge AI, edge compute and connectivity technologies into the hands of many more robotics innovators to help spur the fast development and commercialization of a new generation of useful and intelligent robots in agriculture, consumer, delivery, inspection, service, smart manufacturing/Industry 4.0, warehousing and logistics, and other applications.”

Robotic Platform Details

According to the latest announcement, the hardware development kit includes the new purpose-built robotics-focused DragonBoard™ 845c development board, based on the Qualcomm SDA/SDM845 SoC and compliant with the 96Boards open hardware specification to support a broad range of mezzanine-board expansions.

Other optional components in the hardware development kit are,

• connectivity board supporting Qualcomm TrueWireless Bluetooth 5.0, 4G/LTE and CBRS, along with upcoming support for 5G, 
• an image camera that supports 4K HDR video capture at 60 frames per second (fps) and 
• Qualcomm AI Engine capable of three tera-operations-per-second (TOPS) performance with the DSP itself delivering 1.2 TOPS at one watt with hardware acceleration 
• a tracking camera for path planning and obstacle avoidance using visual simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM); a stereo camera for navigation
• a time-of-flight camera for people, gesture and object detection even in low light conditions.

The Robotic RB3 platform supports Linux,  Robot Operating System (ROS) and further plans to support Ubuntu Linux specifically. For advanced on-device artificial intelligence (AI), the platform supports the Qualcomm® Neural Processing software development kit (SDK). Other support includes Qualcomm® Computer Vision Suite, the Qualcomm® Hexagon™ DSP SDK

The announcement also mentioned the support for Amazon’s AWS RoboMaker, a recently launched robotics service from AWS and enable 5G connectivity support later this year for low-latency and high-throughput industrial robotics applications.

Mobile Platform with Integrated 5G

The company also announced the launch of its Qualcomm Snapdragon Mobile Platform with 5G integrated into a System-on-Chip (SoC). The new 5G mobile platform features Qualcomm 5G PowerSave technology.

Recently, Qualcomm introduced its new and advanced multimode 5G modem for global 5G rollout and supports all major frequency bands. The 5G mobile platform builds upon Snapdragon X50 and X55 5G modems and RF front-end (RFFE) solutions.

In the 5G race, Huawei also launched its 5G multi-mode chipset Balong 5000 and its first commercial implementation the Huawei 5G CPE Pro device.