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Under the Sea: Kontron Supports Computing Autonomy
A fantastic four-day underwater adventure took place in July 2007 in San Diego, California. There, students from North America, Asia, and Europe competed in the Tenth Annual Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Competition hosted by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) and ONR. Just as the name of the competition implies, unmanned vehicles were put to the test in a 40-foot deep Transducer Evaluation Center pool at the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center. The vehicles were required to go through a series of maneuvers that include following pipelines, dropping markers in bins, locating and bumping two illuminated buoys, recovering a cross-shaped object, and surfacing above one of two acoustic beacons. All of this was to be accomplished within a fifteen minute time frame during which the vehicle must have maintained stability. As each team watched the vessels move through the course, it was important to note that the controls were completely unmanned. All participating vehicles remained in operation without any remote controls throughout the competition. The fate of each vehicle was entrusted to an onboard embedded computer, responsible for processing physical data from numerous instruments, processing camera inputs for machine vision and running the complex software that enables autonomous operation. As a leader in embedded computing, Kontron sponsored a team of participating students from Canada’s third largest engineering university, École de Technologie Supérieure. Kontron’s role was to provide the team with its advanced embedded computing platform and expertise, providing the essential computing “brain” to power the team’s unique vehicle, named “Système d’Opération Nautique Intelligent et Autonome” (SONIA). From 2003-2007, the SONIA Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) design team has demonstrated talent and effective teamwork in its implementation of mission software on the Java platform. Sun Microsystems recognized the skillful use of Java in robotics applications and presented the team with a Duke’s Choice Award, an award celebrating extreme innovation in the world of Java technology and granted to the best and most innovative projects using the Java platform. To meet the needs of the SONIA AUV team, a Kontron JRex-PM single board computer (SBC) was selected. This SBC features a 1.8GHz Intel Pentium M processor with a 400 MHz front side bus and Intel Extreme Graphics 2 on chip. Standard Kontron JRex embedded SBC interfaces include a DDR-RAM-DIMM, Type 1 CompactFlash, a single RS-232 and single TTL COM ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a low power integrated LAN controller with 10/100 Base-T interface, and support for standard peripherals, all of which were used in the SONIA vehicle. This product line simplifies the expansion of a CPU board to enable usage with a range of power supplies. Kontron JRex systems are plug-and-play enabled to integrate Kontron JFLEX extension cards in the system effortlessly without the need for cables. In the SONIA AUV design, Kontron JFLEX expansion cards were used to provide all of the I/O not found on the CPU board. These commercial off-the-shelf boards provide one FireWire™ port and two JFLEX boards (one for additional USB and FireWire, and another for RS-232, GPIO and CAN). The SONIA AUV design team uses these ports for direct instrument connection and troubleshooting. Kontron JFLEX expansion cards feature stacking connections with pull-up resistors, which simply can be left unconnected when not in use or connected at any time without reconfiguring hardware. Power management has remained an ongoing challenge for the design team, since SONIA runs entirely on battery power. JRex-PM is compatible with a variety of power supplies, including ATX, for flexibility in meeting the needs of its application environments. The Kontron JRex-PM embedded SBC installed in SONIA uses a 5V power supply with a wide input range of 9Vto 36V to power its components. The Kontron JRex embedded SBC form factor has proven to be a great advantage to the SONIA AUV design team. The ability to plug in up to three expansion slots provides greater freedom to incorporate instruments with different interfaces or to modify the overall architecture of the system without an electrical or mechanical redesign penalty. In addition, the team has not suffered a single thermal shutdown working at 100 percent CPU load in a hostile thermal environment since switching to the Kontron platform. The SONIA AUV design team’s members also are assured of future scalability and flexibility with Kontron JRex as the SONIA AUV moves toward its next generation design. For more information and to order the Kontron JRex SBCs from WDL Systems, please visit our website's Single Board Computers section. Click here for the complete SONIA AUV article in PDF format. Kontron designs and manufactures standard-based and custom embedded and communication solutions for OEMs, systems integrators, and application providers in a variety of markets. Kontron engineering and manufacturing facilities, located throughout Europe, North America, and Asia-Pacific, work together with streamlined global sales and support services to help customers reduce their time-to-market and gain a competitive advantage. Kontron’s diverse product portfolio includes: Computer-on-Modules, SBCs/blades, open-modular platforms and systems, HMIs, and custom capabilities. Kontron is a Premier member of the Intel® Embedded and Communications Alliance and was awarded 2006 Intel Member of the Year. The company is a recent three-time VDC Platinum vendor for Embedded Computer Boards. Kontron is listed on the German TecDAX stock exchange under the symbol "KBC". For more information, please visit: www.kontron.com. WDL Systems is The Embedded Products Source. Since 1990, WDL Systems (formerly EMJ Embedded Systems) has distributed the latest technology to provide customers with Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products for all embedded requirements. WDL Systems is a privately owned company that distributes a full line of Single Board Computers, PC/104 and PC/104-Plus CPU Boards, CPU Modules, Multi-Port Serial Boards, PC/104 Peripherals, Embedded PC's, Embedded Modems, Embedded Software, Power Solutions, PCI and USB Peripherals, PC/104 FPGA Products, Data Acquisition Boards, Frame Grabbers, Alphanumeric Displays, Rugged Hard Drives and Flash Solutions. Visit www.wdlsystems.com for online ordering and product information. Email: sales@wdlsystems.com |
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