A new robot kit has been unveiled this week in the form of the Logitraxx Robot Kit built on Xilinx Spartan 6 FPGA, and which is now available to purchase from $230.
The Logitraxx Robot Kit has been created by Shane Lewis and is an open source design under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike 4.0 International License. Watch the video after the jump to learn more direct from its creator.
“The idea came to me after watching one of my kids assemble a Tamiya Vehicle Chassis Kit. It seemed like a great learning platform, easy to assemble and easy to use. Then I started seeing variations of robotic kits offered online using various Tamiya components.
However, these designs were based on micro controllers with very limited capability. With a background in FPGAs, some of which are robotic systems using FPGAs, I knew that an FPGA based system would far out perform anything with a CPU and also entail a much shorter integration time.”
The Logitraxx Robot Kit project is currently over on the Kickstarter crowd funding website looking to raise enough pledges to make the jump from concept to production. Logitraxx Robot Kit specifications include :
Spartan 6 LX9 FPGA
2MB RAM onboard connected to FPGA (prototype has PSRAM, may switch to DDR2)
16MB Flash onboard connected to FPGA
4MB PROM for FPGA configuration storage
40 GPIO (with access to 2.5v, 3.3v, 5v, and VCHARG power input)
3 axis accelerometer with i2C interface connected to FPGA
18 User definable LEDs, including right angle LEDs for headlights/taillights
2 IR Sensor/Detectors in the front connected to FPGA
1 IR Sensor/Detector underneath the board connected to FPGA
Lithium battery charges from USB (can also charge from VCHARG)
FTDI USB to Serial connected to FPGA (can be rerouted to GPIO)
USB to JTAG for configuring PROM/FPGA
20Mhz oscillator connected to FPGA
32.768kHz oscillator connected to FPGA (Save gates by dividing down this clock for slow functions like blinking LEDs)
NOTE: Any device connected to the FPGA can be rerouted to the GPIO, even the onboard RAM/FLASH can be accessed by GPIO with the appropriate FPGA configuration. All GPIO is 3.3v
So if you think the Logitraxx Robot Kit is something you could benefit from, visit the Kickstarter website now to make a pledge and help Logitraxx become a reality.
Source: Kickstarter
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