Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. has enabled 5G to scale the robotics industry as it introduced the Qualcomm Robotics RB6 Platform and the Qualcomm RB5 AMR Reference Design. Most importantly, the new announcement expanded the company’s roadmap of cutting-edge 5G and edge-AI robotics solutions.

At the annual Qualcomm 5G Summit event, Qualcomm Technologies said the latest advanced edge-AI and robotics solutions will support the creation of more productive, autonomous, and advanced robots. The solutions will help unlock new commercial realities including AMRs, delivery robots and highly automated manufacturing robots. In addition, the solutions will also encompass collaborative robots, urban air mobility (UAM) aircrafts, autonomous defense solutions, and beyond.    

Bringing together Qualcomm Technologies enhanced Qualcomm AI Engine and 5G capabilities will unleash new possibilities for smarter and safer robots and environments. First, it will enable enhanced autonomy for delivery robots roaming the streets. Second, seamless fleet management coordination across AMRs in industrial spaces. In addition, it will also allow real-time data and insights that empower critical decision-making across manufacturing and logistics. Finally, it will enable next-generation intelligence to support safe and autonomous urban air mobility transportation.

Enabler for Industry 4.0

The Qualcomm Robotics RB6 Platform and the Qualcomm RB5 AMR Reference Design will support evolving applications for OEMs and robot manufacturers. The new solutions will accelerate the digital transformation of industries and serve as a key enabler for Industry 4.0.

“Building on the successful growth and traction of Qualcomm Technologies’ leading robotics solutions, our expanded roadmap of solutions will help bring enhanced AI and 5G technologies to support smarter, safer, and more advanced innovations across robotics, drones and intelligent machines,” said Dev Singh, Senior Director of Business Development and Head of Autonomous Robotics, Drones and Intelligent Machines at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

“We are fueling robotics innovations with 5G connectivity and premium edge-AI that will transform how we think and approach challenges and ever-evolving industry expectations in the digital economy.”

Unleashing 5G Robotics Innovation

Built on the foundation of the company’s leading robotics platforms, the Qualcomm Robotics RB6 platform sits at the premium tier of Qualcomm Technologies’ robotics solutions. It delivers expanded capabilities that take enterprise and industrial robotics innovation to the next level with enhanced AI and 5G.

The new solution delivers state-of-the-art 5G connectivity with support for global sub-6GHz and mmWave bands in mainstream, enterprise, and private networks. Qualcomm robotics platforms have flexible architecture with expansion cards to support evolving connectivity features. These allow Qualcomm Robotics RB6 platform to deliver support for 3GPP Release 15, and Releases 16, 17 and 18 features as cards become available in the future.

Furthermore, the elevated platform brings best-in-class, premium, edge AI and video processing capabilities. Particularly, this becomes possible because of the enhanced Qualcomm AI Engine, with support for 70 to 200 Trillion-Operations-Per-Second (TOPS).

The Qualcomm RB5 AMR Reference design is the first AMR reference design to offer tightly integrated enhanced AI and 5G-capabilities. Moreover, this new solution helps accelerate development for commercial, enterprise, and industrial robots.

Empowering Developers With Ease   

The Qualcomm Robotics RB6 platform is comprised of an extensive set of hardware and software development tools that are comprehensive, customizable, and easy-to-use. Furthermore, developers have flexible software capabilities with a fully integrated, premium AI Software Development Kit (SDK). Moreover, this SDK brings together multimedia, AI and ML, computer vision (CV), and networking building blocks to support end to end deployment of robotic applications.   

Meanwhile, Qualcomm continues to collaborate with leading robotics, drones, and intelligent machines ecosystem leaders. Hence, it drives innovation for premium 5G, and edge-AI enabled solutions. These companies include ADLINK, Akasha Imaging (an Alphabet company), Cyngn, ForwardX, FutureMind, and Hyundai Motor Company. In addition, inVia Robotics, LG Electronics, Microsoft Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC), and ModalAI, are among the companies they partner as well. Other companies are Naver Labs, Pudu Robotics, Samsung Electronics, Teraki, Teledyne Flir, Thundercomm, and more.

In addition, Qualcomm Technologies is continuing to collaborate with TDK Corporation to further enhance the capabilities of the Qualcomm Robotics roadmap of cutting-edge solutions. TDK has added their enhanced sensor technologies for premium robotics applications as part of latest robotics product offerings.