All-in CPU speeds robot applications to market

At the 10th annual Trinity College Fire-Fighting Robot Contest, Smart Robots of Dalton, Massachusetts, demonstrated its latest educational/commercial robot platform.

At the 10th annual Trinity College Fire-Fighting Robot Contest, held in April at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, Smart Robots of Dalton, Massachusetts, demonstrated its latest educational/commercial robot platform.

A Medallion HY7201 embedded CPU module manufactured by Technical Solutions powers the unit.

The first production units of Smart Robots' Medallion powered systems will be shipping in May.

In choosing the Medallion CPU Module, Joe Bosworth, President and CEO of Smart Robots explained that the company was able to develop its robot in less time because it didn't have to design the system from scratch.

The Medallion includes CPU, RAM, Flash and DiskOnChip as well as I/O for RS232, USB Host, IIC and Ethernet.

The Medallion is preloaded with Linux and Java allowing Smart Robots to concentrate on developing software functionality instead of tedious device-driver development.

The Medallion is low in power, consuming less than 1W, which means that the robot will run longer on a single battery charge.

"We chose the Techsol Medallion to power our new robot line because it has an excellent price to performance ratio and includes the key interfaces we require, allowing us to concentrate on our core competencies and get to market more quickly", said Joe Bosworth.

"Techsol's engineers and support team were very helpful and quickly dealt with our questions and support requirements".

"We are pleased that Smart Robots chose the Medallion CPU module for their latest professional robot platform", said Brian Empey, President and CEO of Technical Solutions.

"The Medallion is ideally suited for embedded applications where initial production runs begin at modest rates.

This allows the customer to build more software features and get to market more quickly when compared to developing the entire platform from scratch.

Joe Bosworth is typical of our customers.

His needs look simple at first, but when you combine low-power plus small size and low-cost with the needs of various serial interfaces, wireless Ethernet, DiskOnChip and J2ME/CDC there probably isn't another product out there that meets his needs.

Plus, he required some additional engineering for a soft shut-down feature, which we provided as part of our normal support package".

"By choosing Medallion CPU modules to power their embedded applications our customers can reduce development costs and get to market more quickly", explains Brian Empey.

"In this competitive market, time-to-market is key.

Our customers can quickly develop new applications with the development kit, which features our ARM based RISC CPU modules, preloaded with the Linux OS".

The Medallion HY7201 CPU module is ideally suited for applications such as: low-power embedded controllers; handheld or portable embedded devices; and rugged remote sensors.

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