Introducing the Snapdragon Cargo

At CES 2015, Qualcomm Research is introducing its latest innovation in robotics through the Snapdragon Cargo—a flying and rolling robot with an integrated flight controller—powered by a Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ processor.

Inside Snapdragon Cargo is a multi-functional computing platform. This hardware and software platform is built around the Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC to provide a low-power solution that integrates multi-core processing, wireless communications, sensor integration, positioning and real-time I/O for multiple robotics applications.

Also running on this integrated platform are Computer Vision technologies that enable the Cargo and other robots to better perceive their environment.

To enable robotics applications that can better perceive their environment, Qualcomm Research is working on a Machine Vision Research SDK, which includes key Computer Vision (CV) technologies. The following are three major CV technologies that are part of this SDK, with more to come:

1. Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO) – tracks 3D position and 3D orientation in unknown, feature-sparse environments, using both inertial sensors and camera.
2. Vision-only Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (VSLAM) – tracks 3D position and 3D orientation in texture-rich environments while creating a sparse landmarks (keypoints) map. VSLAM is used for 3D reconstruction.
3. Depth From Stereo cameras (DFS) – provides depth information used for collision avoidance and 3D reconstruction.

Qualcomm Research will be showing live demonstrations of these CV technologies running on the Snapdragon Cargo while it’s in flight, at its robotics booth at CES—booth #26220, South Hall 2.

Much of Qualcomm’s products and efforts are focused on creating leading technologies for your smartphones and mobile devices. Qualcomm Research uses many of these same technologies when exploring new frontiers, one of which is robotics.

Until Snapdragon Cargo, Qualcomm Research’s innovations in robotics were most recently displayed on the Snapdragon Rover and Snapdragon Micro Rover. The Snapdragon Rover showcases deep machine learning techniques and autonomous behavior. Deep machine learning techniques enable the Rover to identify objects, classify them and learn where they should be placed when, for instance, the Rover is cleaning your room.

The Snapdragon Micro Rover is a 3D printable robot that serves as a catalyst to the robot hobbyist community; with it, users can create their own robotics applications with their smartphones. The blueprints to create this simple, easy-to-build, 3D-printable robot are free to download, as are sample applications. It’s designed to use the compute functionality of a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor within a smartphone. Place the smartphone in the Micro Rover and load the sample apps for autonomous operations.

Want to meet the Qualcomm Research robot family? The Snapdragon Cargo, the Snapdragon Rover and the Snapdragon Micro Rover will all be on display, with the Cargo being demoed at CES #26220, South Hall 2.