With the increasing automation in factories and homes, robotic devices are becoming a common part of our daily lives. Whether developing industrial or home appliance robots, NXP’s portfolio, tools and resources can help you reduce the time to market and achieve a successful product launch. In this blog, we will cover some of the key robotics requirements and how NXP can help you meet them.
When designing a robot, Edge intelligence is becoming crucial to ensure robot autonomy, as it enables robots to perceive their environment, understand situations, and complete tasks. Localization and mapping rely on deep learning models, like object detection and classification, as well as sensor fusion to gather inputs from the robot’s surroundings. Processing at the edge allows for fast responses and enhanced security without needing cloud connectivity. However, it also requires integrated accelerators, such as NPUs, to ensure efficient processing and quick decision-making.
The latest MCX N series of microcontrollers as well as in the new i.MX processors integrate NXP eIQ Neutron NPUs, essential to perform real-time inference and classification of data and improve robots’ awareness of its environment.
With the integration of robots into shared human spaces, safety and security requirements have significantly increased in recent years. These requirements must be carefully considered during the development of mobile robots. The new i.MX 959x MPU features a safety island and is safety-certified to ASIL B per ISO 26262 and SIL 2 per IEC 16538 standards. Using NXP safety-certified MPUs and PMICs allow system engineers to design with confidence and efficiently achieve system-level compliance. Additionally, NXP’s longevity program, which spans 10 to 15 years, ensures product supply throughout the product’s lifetime, reducing the risks of redesign and the time and cost associated with re-certification.
Moreover, the increased autonomy of mobile robots necessitates enhanced protection against vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit. The new Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) and the US Cyber Trust Mark regulations aims to introduce mandatory cybersecurity requirements to minimize the exposure and risk, managing these vulnerabilities and their potential impact. NXP offers a scalable portfolio of security protections, integrated in MPU/MCUs or based on companion secure elements, to meet different levels of cyber risks. NXP Edge Lock technology combined with NXP security expertise and assurance program allows device manufacturers to accelerate release of compliant products to market and bring resilience in a dynamic regulation landscape.
To accelerate the development process, NXP provides comprehensive reference designs for mobile robots, including applications like battery management and sensor fusion. Moreover, with the new NavQPlus evaluation kit, customers can effortlessly design a mission or companion computer for a mobile robot. By using the evaluation kit and ROS2 - Robot Operating System - set of robotics software libraries and tools, it is possible to easily create an efficient, highly integrated and robust design, benefiting from features such as integrated NPU, Wi-Fi, and secure enclave, among others.
Curious about what else do we offer? Find more about mobile robots solutions, reference designs and collateral in our mobile robots landing page.
NavQPlus Block Diagram
