Software program-defined robotics agency Auterion has introduced the Skynode S, a fully-integrated autopilot and mission pc designed with ship full capabilities in a minimal footprint for compact autonomous robots and drones.
“Skynode S is low-cost, extraordinarily compact, and will likely be produced within the tens of 1000’s,” says Auterion chief govt officer Lorenz Meier of his firm’s newest autopilot launch, “introducing unprecedented scale to the western drone trade for the primary time.”
Auterion has introduced its newest autopilot platform, the tiny but highly effective AI-capable Skynode S. (📷: Auterion)
The brand new Skynode S follows the discharge of the Skynode X in October final yr, which supplied a discount in weight dimension over the unique Skynode whereas doubling the compute efficiency of its flight administration unit (FMU). The Skynode S, although, is significantly smaller than the X — but, the corporate claims, can ship the total performance out there within the Auterion software program suite, and makes use of the identical FMUv6x flight administration unit.
Measuring simply 49×37mm (round 1.9×1.5″) and with customary four-hole mounting, the Skynode S can management as much as eight motors and/or servos on a variety of car platforms, together with bigger fixed-wing drones. It gives direct enter for an 8S lithium-polymer or lithium-ion battery system, with out the necessity for a separate energy modules, and might hyperlink to most quad digital pace controls (ESCs) with a single connection.
Regardless of the distinction in dimension, the Skynode S is constructed across the similar FMU because the Skynode X (pictured). (📷: Auterion)
The corporate is positioning the brand new platform not just for flight administration however for on-device machine studying and synthetic intelligence, promising sufficient compute energy to deploy AI and pc imaginative and prescient functions with out the necessity for an uplink to a extra highly effective server system. For this, it contains connectivity for 2 MIPI Digital camera Serial Interface (CSI) picture sensors with USB connectivity for extra, with an on-board neural processing unit (NPU) for power-efficient computation.
Extra data on the Skynode S is out there on the Auterion web site; the corporate had not confirmed pricing on the time of writing, however requests that events get in contact by means of its contact kind for extra particulars.