VIA at RoboNexus - Driving Robotics

RoboNexus
Santa Clara, USA - October 21-23

On Thursday Oct 21st 2004 at the Santa Clara Convention Center; RoboNexus the largest robotics event ever held on US soil will begin and VIA will once again be demonstrating the importance of our VIA EPIA Mini-ITX and future small form factor, low power PC platforms for the robotics industry.

Competitive Robots

Since the beginnings of the VIA Robotics Initiative in 2003 VIA has continued to successfully drive x86 architecture and PC-Bots throughout all levels of the robotics community including commercial, academic and enthusiast areas. Competition being one of the more significant drivers of this emerging industry VIA is proud to announce at this year’s RoboNexus; “The Prodigies” VIA’s official team for the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge.

The Prodigies are a two extraordinary young students Nicholas Hoza (age 15) and Christopher Medrzycki (age 20) who have built their own vehicle from the ground up using a VIA EPIA Mini-ITX mainboard as the PC brains to give their vehicle “eXpeditor” the ability to detect obstacles and navigate autonomously. eXpeditor has been specifically designed to handle the demanding off-road conditions of the 150 mile race from Los Angeles to Las Vegas that will net a winner US$2 million in prize money.

Above - The eXpeditor in all its glory!

Last years wildly successful DARPA Grand Challenge race attracted participants from the academic and corporate elite including Carnegie Melon University’s “Red Team” who finished the farthest along the route just beyond the 7 mile mark. This time around The Prodigies feel with their creative approach and brilliant design the eXpeditor can go the distance.

You can view a short video (4MB) of the eXpeditor cruising around driverless here.

Commercial Robots

RoboNexus will also feature new commercially available and soon to be available robots based on VIA platforms that help expand the PC-Bot market by introducing new companion robots for homes and labs.

White Box Robotics 912 series of robots include an 912HMV for home security, alerts and reminders while the 912MP3 effectively functions as a DJ for parties and home entertainment. Both of these robots are highly and easily customizable with off-the-shelf standard computer components such as web cameras or wireless cards that easily connect to the VIA EPIA M10,000 mainboards that make up the hardware components inside. Stylish, functional and extremely customizable the 912 series of robots are easily one of most anticipated robots at the RoboNexus event.

Above (from left to right) - 912HMV and 912MP3 from White Box Robotics

New from RoboDynamics this year is the Robotic Personal Assistant (RPA) MILO. MILO’s unique design gives him myriad functionality and makes him the ideal platform to develop on. MILO counts security and telepresence capabilities among his main applications and is tall enough to look over tables or into baby cribs. A VIA EPIA 6000 Mini-ITX embedded mainboard with USB and IEEE 1394 expandability means that MILO can be fitted with existing, standardized PC components and technologies to extend his functionality to the full extent of your vision.

Above (from left to right) - MILO: Friend, MILO: Communicator and MILO:Assistant from RoboDynamics

The RoboNexus schedule of exciting conferences and large number of robots on display promises to deliver something of interest for everyone from the merely curious to the hardcore robotics enthusiasts, developers and business people. VIA as a Gold Sponsor of the RoboNexus event combined with our sustained efforts to support our creative partners; welcomes this opportunity to demonstrate our continued growth and success in the research and commercial robotics industry.

RoboNexus Event Specifics

Event website: www.RoboNexus.com
Location: Santa Clara Convention Center (Santa Clara, CA)
Date: Oct. 21st ~23rd
VIA Press Conference: Friday Oct. 22nd 2:00pm
VIA Booth: #310
White Box Robotics Booth: #714
RoboDynamics Booth: #210

Resources

eXpeditor Autonomous Vehicle
Video showing the eXpeditor in action... » Download Video! (wmv / 4MB)
VIA and its involvement in robotics - VIA Robotics Initiative
RoboNexus official site - www.robonexus.com