With the release of AMD KriaTM KR260 Robotics Starter Kit today, robotics developers have something to look forward to. Robotics is a problematic endeavor. AMD hopes to accelerate robotics innovation in every business by lowering the barriers to entry for embedding design. This work is highlighted in the newest edition to the Kria portfolio of adaptive system-on-modules (SOMs).
Rapid Robotics Deployment at a Reasonable Cost
The Kria KR260's first feature to emphasize is its ability to seamlessly integrate with current Kria K260 adaptive SOMs for production deployment. When paired with Ubuntu, the Kria SOM range may save up to nine months in time for deployment by speeding the design cycle compared to chip-down design. This is a simple and quick way for robotics firms to get started for all developers, as no FPGA knowledge is necessary.
Another significant advantage for developers is the low cost. $349 gets you the Kria KR260 Robotics Starter Kit. It lowers the barrier to entry for a platform that offers more for less.
Kria KR260 and Ubuntu
KR260 developers do not require Linux knowledge, in keeping with its easy route to production. The KR260 supports the Ubuntu embedded operating system out of the box and is compatible with Canonical's latest long-term support (LTS) versions of Ubuntu 22.04. This eliminates the need for developers to deal with malfunctioning software or hardware. Canonical provides them with the most up-to-date security and upgrades to guarantee that installations in the field are not vulnerable to more sophisticated attackers. This frees up more time to work on real-world applications that operate on top of a verified, vetted, and maintained standard operating system — from clouds to IoT.
KR260 developers now have access to a broad ecosystem of open-source robotics projects. It supports ROS 2 natively, including the future ROS 2 Humble Hawksbill release. Developers can now be comfortable that all ROS 2 testing suites, including continuous integration jobs, nightly jobs, packaging tasks, and performance testing, will be valid for the KR260.
Stack of Kria Robotics
Kria Robotics Stack (KRS), an integrated collection of robot libraries and tools that uses hardware to expedite the development and commercialization of industrial-grade robotic solutions targeting Kria SOMs, is also available to developers. As a consequence, compared to rival GPU-based systems, Kria SOMs' low-latency, adaptive computing architecture may give over 8X greater performance/watt and up to 3.5X lower latency.
A Certified Board to Help You Get to Market Quickly
The Ubuntu Certification of the Kria KR260 provides users with security and long-term support. If you're working with a derivative board, Canonical's Enablement services offer the same degree of assistance at a lower cost.
Canonical professional services are now available to Kria KR260 users, including SMART START, a complete services package that enables businesses to bootstrap commercial IoT and robotics solutions. Canonical specialists walk you through the most time-consuming parts of launching an edge device with SMART START, including the manufacturing process and containerization, infrastructure creation, and risk management. Canonical's services also provide access to Canonical enterprise support for Ubuntu enterprises adopting the KR260.
Find out more about Canonical's professional robotics services.
Final thoughts
Overall, the new Kria KR260 is a scalable and ready-to-use robotics development platform that will save you time when creating your robotics application. It contains all of the necessary interfaces and features to be up and running in under an hour. We're excited to see what you come up with next!
