Products Robotics
Qualcomm introduces 5G and AI-powered platform for robot development

Qualcomm Technologies has unveiled a new robotics platform that uses 5G and artificial intelligence to help develop power-efficient robots and drones.

The Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform is comprised of an extensive set of hardware, software and development tools to create high-compute, low-power robots and drones for a variety of sectors, including industrial, enterprise and defense.

More than 20 early adopters are in the process of evaluating the platform, and 30-plus ecosystem players are developing necessary hardware and software to enable various robotics applications, including ADLINK and Panasonic.

The platform’s Qualcomm QRB5165 processor, customized for robotics applications, offers a heterogeneous computing architecture coupled with the fifth-generation Qualcomm AI Engine delivering 15 Tera Operations Per Second (TOPS) of AI performance for running complex AI and deep learning workloads.

The processor also offers machine learning (ML) inferencing at the edge using the new Qualcomm Hexagon Tensor Accelerator (HTA), an image signal processor (ISP) with support for seven concurrent cameras, and a dedicated computer vision engine for enhanced video analytics (EVA).

The platform also includes support for 4G and 5G connectivity speeds via a companion module.

Between the platform and processor, the company enables various design offerings including off-the-shelf system-on-module solutions and flexible chip-on-board designs.

The solution is available in multiple options, including commercial and industrial-grade temperature ranges and an option for extended lifecycle until 2029.

As part of a strategic partnership, TDK has added its sensor technologies for enhanced robotics applications as part of the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform.