Aaeon has introduced its first autonomous robot controller, with integrated hardware time synchronisation and support for an external nine-axis IMU (inertial measurement unit).
Aimed at outdoor autonomous mobile robots and called RBX-I2000, “the largest improvements offered are its speed and positional accuracy,” according to the company. “By moving away from solely software-based time synchronisation, latency is reduced from the standard 100 – 200μs to approximately 20ns.”
Processing is though a choice of 11th Generation Intel Core i7, i5, i3 or Celeron (15W versions in each case), and four synchronisation outputs are provided, each offering 1Hz and time-of-day – the latter at 9,600 and 115,200bit/s.
The supported IMU is an Xsens MTi-670, a compact high-end unit with GNSS (sat nav), accelerometers, gyros and optional magnetometers and altimeter.
“The combination of T-Box time synchronisation and built-in Xsens MTi-670 9-axis IMU support allows the use of Movella Xsens RTK to produce centimetre-level positional data,” said Aaeon.
There is also a built-in Bosch BMI160 six-axis (accelerometer-gyroscope) IMU
Amongst conventional IO ports, there are four for Ethernet including one at 2.5Gbit, four USB 3.0, two channels of CAN, 8bit digital IO, Fakra Z antenna port for the optional M2 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth card and Fakra C for the GNSS antenna.
Demonstrating the RBX-I2000
The computer measures 175 x 150 x 72mm, weighs 2kg and has a wall-mount option.
Power consumption is 67W and full load and fan-less over 0 – 50°C.
Use is foreseen in smart agriculture and mining applications, and as a building block in Industry 4.0.
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