BeagleBoard.org® is a non-profit corporation dedicated to open source hardware and software in the embedded computing space, with an emphasis on education. The open source community has created thousands of projects based on these credit card sized boards. Their most popular board, BeagleBone® Black, is a rugged general purpose single board computer that has found homes in many machine control applications like 3D printers and CNC machines. In fact, they are so well suited to these applications in harsh environments that Arrow created an industrial temperature rated version of this board rated up to 85°C to improve application performance.
Now, BeagleBoard.org® is releasing BeagleBone® Blue, specifically designed for robotic applications. It has the same quick boot time and Linux support we love from BeagleBone® Black, but it also has new features that optimize it for robotics. It has standard wireless communication onboard in the forms of 802.11bgn WiFi, BLE, and Bluetooth 4.0 as well as dedicated headers for other interfaces like UART, SPI, DSM2 radio, and even GPS.
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The real advantage comes in the form of integrated power management and motion control. This board natively supports a 2-cell LiPo battery with cell balancing and can handle a 6-16V charger input. Anyone that has tried to move other SBCs on the market to a battery powered system knows how significant this feature is for robotics. The board also has dedicated hardware for motor control that accepts 4 quadrature encoder inputs and has 8 6V servo motor outputs and 4 DC motor outputs. These outputs are regulated up to 4A so you can actually build a very powerful robot on this platform with minimal external hardware. We certainly would not recommend trying to drive tens of watts of motors from a LiPo battery, but the power is available if you can stay plugged into the wall. The board accepts 9-18VDC through a standard 5.5mm OD center positive wall adapter.
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BeagleBone® Blue also integrates sensors like a 9-axis inertial measurement unit and barometer that allows the user an in-depth view into the forces at play around their application. In addition to wireless and GPIO interfaces, the board has a standard USB 2.0 host and client port, which is likely the easiest way to achieve a visual interface if needed. There is no dedicated camera or display interface on the board, but a little digging should yield a USB camera with a good Linux driver. You can also connect a TFT display via SPI for simple printouts. The board supports Debian and Ubuntu Snappy distributions, as well robotic-specific operating systems and languages like ROS, ArduPilot, and Machinekit. You can even use the Cloud9 GUI for a more graphical experience. The operating systems can be loaded via MicroSD just like the Raspberry Pi and other single board computers.
While this board is brand new to the market, it was designed with such an emphasis on standard interfaces that it is ready to roll (ha!) with just about any generic robotic kit that includes wheels and a chassis. We love this little two-wheel DC motor kit from Adafruit Industries.
There are many things to take into consideration when finding a good single board computer for a robotic design, and the new BeagleBone® Blue tackles them all head-on. This open source board has just become the easiest way to learn about robotics and create your own project, no matter your experience level!
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