29 August 2008

ARM Will Take Key Role In Consumer Robotics Of The Future

Currently the majority of funding for robotics goes into the military and space exploration arenas, but the consumer market will be the largest robotics segment long term and ARM will play an important part, according to a report.

ABI Research believes there will be a battle for the space between x86 and ARM.  “The challenge in personal robotics engineering is keeping costs low.  Part of that is to fit complex software into as small an ARM processor as possible, with even lower-cost ARM processors handling subsystems of the robo,” explained ABI Research principal analyst Philip Solis.

An alternate way to get more processing power at little to no cost is to use a nearby PC to act as an external "brain," communicating with.  Complete autonomy for the robot is preferable, and for that, powerful yet low-cost processors are needed, the report highlighted.

On the battle between ARM and x86 in this market, Solis said: “We would likely see very small, lower-power x86 processors used as the main processors, alongside ARM processors.”