Qualcomm Unveils its First Robotic Platform to Transform the Robotics Industry

US-based MNC Qualcomm launched its first all-encompassing platform for robotics called RB3. The unit is derived from the last year's Snapdragon 845 system-on-a-chip. It is highly optimized for drones and other automations which include artificial intelligence and sensor processing, support for LTE network and high-end security.

RB3 features hardware, software and other tools structured to aid the creation of the next generation of robots. Its flexible structure enables the companies to customize it as per their requirement with the off the shelf hardware and software and can opt an operating system like ROS (Robot Operating System) or LINUX.

Dev Singh, director of business development and head of autonomous robotics, drones and intelligent machines at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc said – "Our technologies are at the heart of a wide array of robotics products available today, from companion robots including Anki Vector, Elli Q and Sony Aibo, to multimedia robots like Cerevo Tripon and Keecker, to labor-saving machines such as robotic vacuum cleaners from iRobot, Ecovacs, and Panasonic."

RB3-based bots are expected to be spotted sometime in 2019 under big banners like LG and South Korea's Naver on the shortlist alongside Anki, JD, and OrionStar. As for now, development kits are available and a 5G version of RB3 is expected to hit the market later in the year.

The new platform also includes Qualcomm's AI Engine for on-device machine learning and computer vision. It also features hi-fidelity sensor processing technology for perception, odometry for localization, mapping, and navigation along with Wi-Fi connectivity.

Although the company has apt reasons to delve deep into robotics yet it will be really unjust to predict how well this will work. Intel and NVIDIA giving a head-on fight to Qualcomm have already started supplying AI-powered robots. Therefore, it's high time for Qualcomm to step into robotics and move forward from depending on phones to pad its real essence.