Finally – A platform targeted for robotics, machine vision, and industrial communications & control!
Recent advances in data science, ML, and AI have promised computation on edge if AI hardware catches up with software. This is where FPGAs come into the picture. They fit perfectly with the requirements of edge computing. But as FPGAs are being used in such applications, a very important concern needs to be addressed – FPGAs have always been a niche field, limited only to experts.
However, things are changing quite rapidly. Last year, AMD-Xilinx announced the Kria portfolio of adaptive system-on-modules (SOMs) which are production-ready and provide a new method of bringing adaptive computing to AI and software developers. The Kria module not only offers hardware but also application support around the hardware in the form of their App Store.
AMD-Xilinx is expanding its Kria SOM (system-on-module) family with a new out-of-the-box ready robotics starter kit for software and hardware developers, addressing the computational needs of this growing sector. The new SOM starter kit is an end-to-end adaptive robotics platform that promises 5X productivity advantages over GPU-based solutions and a simplified design environment for software developers and roboticists with no prior experience with FPGAs.
The KR260 Robotics Starter Kit provides a ROS-centric development environment, allowing roboticists and embedded developers to quickly and easily construct applications on adaptable hardware. According to AMD-Xilinx, production-ready accelerated applications may be up and operating in less an hour when combined with the KR260 Robotics Starter Kit, allowing developers to focus on differentiation and shortening the runway to volume deployment.
Specifications of the Kria can be found in the picture below:
The Kria ecosystem provides lots of free and open source resources apart from their in-depth documentation and step-by-step guide. According to AMD-Xilinx, Ubuntu Linux OS is the best choice for Getting Started with the KR260. “Not only can you develop different types of robotics applications with this kit, you can also design other things uses inside a factory – industrial communication and control, PLCs, PACs, machine vision, etc,” says Chetan Khona, Sr. Director of Industrial, Vision, Healthcare & Sciences markets at AMD.
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