News Release
VIA Showcases Robotics Innovations at RoboNexus 2004
Unveils “The Prodigies” as the official VIA team for the 2005
DARPA Grand Challenge and demonstrates new commercial robots from
White Box Robotics and RoboDynamics at RoboNexus 2004 event
Santa Clara, California and Taipei, Taiwan, 20 October 2004 - VIA
Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator and developer of silicon chip
technologies and PC platform solutions, today unveiled The Prodigies,
VIA’s official team for the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 autonomous
vehicle off-road race. The Prodigies and their robotic vehicle, the
eXpeditor, will be in attendance at the VIA booth #310 at the RoboNexus
event Oct 21st to 23rd along with new commercial robots from White
Box Robotics and RoboDynamics at their own booths respectively.
The Prodigies is made up of two extraordinary young students Nicholas
Hoza and Christopher Medrzycki (15 and 20 years old) who have built
from the ground up their own autonomous vehicle using a VIA EPIA
Mini-ITX mainboard as the PC brains for their vehicles navigation
system. eXpeditor which will be on display can drive and navigate
on its own and has been designed to conquer the hazardous off-road
conditions that will make up the trail of the coming DARPA Grand
Challenge which offers US$2million in prize money to the winner.
Be sure to visit booth #310 to see eXpeditor first hand.
“VIA is proud to announce our sponsorship of the Prodigies for
the upcoming DARPA Grand Challenge” said Timothy J. Brown VIA Robotics
Program Manager. “Their ingenuity and zeal ensure these young geniuses
will be serious contenders for the US$2 million in prize money.”
"The DARPA Grand Challenge is the most exciting, fun, and
challenging project I've ever participated in -- knowing that I'm
building something completely unique makes every small achievement
exhilarating," said Nicholas Hoza, The Prodigies Team Captain.
"As my team's VIA EPIA Mini-ITX platform based autonomous ground
vehicle gets closer to perfection, I'm more and more confident that
it will provide tough competition on race day."
The RoboNexus event will also feature VIA EPIA Mini-ITX based robots
from White Box Robotics with their 912 series robot at booth #714
and Milo the personal robotic assistant from RoboDynamics at booth
#210. These two new commercially available robots demonstrate the
ability of low power VIA platforms for making attractive robots with
cutting edge functionality that are affordable to the average consumer.
“VIA’s line of Mini-ITX motherboards is the perfect cost-effective
solution for our 912 PC-Bot.” says Thomas Burick, President of White
Box Robotics. “Their low power consumption, powerful embedded processors,
and all-in-one design afford our 912 robot advanced functions like
vision-based navigation and object recognition. “
”The Mini-ITX form factor combined with an x86 architecture is
an ideal solution for onboard processing in robotics applications,”
said Fred Nikgohar, CEO RoboDynamics. “VIA’s ME6000 is the cornerstone
of MILO, our first robot, and we are very pleased with the dedicated
support of VIA and their Robotics Initiative, which has proved a
key element in the success of our company to date.”
About RoboNexus
RoboNexus is America’s largest business development, education and
consumer event for emerging robotics technologies. RoboNexus takes
place October 21st to 23rd at the Santa Clara Convention Center,
5001 Great America Parkway, Santa Clara, CA 95054, Tel: (408) 748-7000.
For more information visit: www.robonexus.com
About White Box Robotics
White Box Robotics, LLC will be a leading developer and innovator
of industry standard PC based mobile robotic platforms for the entertainment,
educational, commercial, and personal robotics industry. White Box
will deliver value to the industry by designing, marketing, and retailing
high quality, affordable, and visually stunning mobile robotic platforrms.
About RoboDynamics
RoboDynamics Corporation is a leading developer of robotic platforms
and underlying technologies. RoboDynamics has a heavy emphasis on
R&D and a keen interest in various robotic applications including
security, personal assistance technologies, and personality development.
The goal is to develop technologies that enable third party developers
and partner companies to create high-impact robotic applications
using our underlying mechanical, electronic, and software technologies.
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