The VIA Robotics Initiative

The VIA Robotics Initiative is part of a greater effort for VIA to participate within the robotics community, and to explore innovative new applications for VIA's "Digital Brialliance" vision. VIA sees massive potential for growth in the robotics space through close cooperation between the software, hardware and mechanical engineering communities and the establishment of open development standards. The VIA Robotics Initiative is the first step by VIA to join in that cooperation and take on a leadership role in enabling the creation of highly integrated, low power, and open x86 platforms that will help drive future robotics innovation.

VIA is enabling these advances in robotics technology by providing a versatile and flexible development platform (learn more), and hosted a press conference on the subject at a recent event alongside the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, at which several leading organizations shared their insights in how the market for robotics is developing. You can download these presentations here.

Robotics Today

The maturation of key PC industry technologies, notably wireless networking and continued reductions in form factor and costs, is making it possible for robotics to begin to realize its full potential in commercial as well as industrial, space, and military environments. Efforts are also being made to create open and standard software implementations for key robotic control functions. Software standards projects like RETF and the OROCOS (Open Robotic Control Software) project aim to further promote the widespread development for robot projects and business opportunities.

The Open Automaton Project (OAP) which is well underway sees a space and opportunity for building robots that are smarter and more useful than the popular robotic kits used for educating young hobbyists and significantly cheaper than the complex proprietary institutional and research facility projects. Targeting home and office environments the Open Automaton Project uses off-the-shelf, readily available hardware components and software source code that is available under the GNU General Public License.

PC-Bots PC-Bots, convergence PC devices with robotic senses and capabilities which will bring everyday consumers some of the first digitally intelligent products that address their home entertainment, organization and security needs, are already entering today's marketplace. What are PC-Bots?

The Right Robotics Development Platform

With our highly acclaimed VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard series, VIA is able to offer an unrivaled range of highly integrated, low power, x86 platforms that are ideal for robotics designs. Available in a variety of processor speeds of up to 1GHz and packing in full set of advanced connectivity and digital media features, VIA EPIA Mini-ITX platforms deliver proven performance and functionality on a tiny, low power 17cm x 17cm footprint that can be integrated into highly compact enclosures.

The native x86 environment of the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX also provides a mature software development platform for both Microsoft Windows® and a variety of Linux operating systems, enabling the rapid and affordable implementation of new robotics applications. The VIA EPIA Mini-ITX also has an aggressive roadmap of new products, which include features such as dual LAN support, integrated compact flash and Card Bus, higher processing speeds and lower power and fan requirements. The rapidly evolving feature set of the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX will continue to expand the range of options and platforms suited for different autonomous vehicle and robotics applications.

Read a robotics focused review of the VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX mainboard at Robots.net.

Microsoft Robotics Studio

As part of VIA's cross platform application, VIA also supports Microsoft Robotics Studio, a window-based environment launched in 2006 for academic, hobbyist and commercial developers. Together with VIA EPIA mainboards, Microsoft Robotics Studio provides a convenient platform for robotics designers to easily create robotics applications.

Presentations on Robotics