Personal Robot Market Opportunities Now

PC-Bots
November, 2003
Timothy J. Brown
VIA Robotics Program Manager

VIA Confidential and Proprietary

Driving Robotics

Military Money
Security, intelligence, life
saving, more effective
Health Care Needs
Cheaper, better, labor shortage
solution, aging demographic
Personal Interest
Evolution and automation of
personal technologies
The United Nations Economic Commission
predicts a ten-fold growth of the Personal
and Service Robotics sector over the next few
years - from $600 million in 2002 to $5.2
billion in 2005
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THE FUTURE: Personal Technology Assistant

You & your PTA
Single point of
technology contact

(Communications filter and

technology manager from
Technology SPAM!)

Increased functionality
Increased mobility
(Entertain, Security,
(portable, wireless, comes
Automation, companion)
to you, replaces you)
Beyond the GUI
(voice to voice/touch
screen /brain machine
controls)

Increased user friendliness

(more fun, personality, pride of
ownership, personalization)
Physical task performer
(deliver messages, data, pays
the bills)

VIA Confidential and Proprietary

Personal Robots Today

The newest generation of

automated digitally
intelligent everyday items
Hardware/Appliances with
human-like senses
New levels of mobility and
utility
Communicate, entertain,
network, educate and interact
with their environment
There are now some 550,000
"entertainment robots" around the
world and the figure is expected to
reach 1.5 million by 2006. -U.N.
Economic Commissionc

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Todays PC-Bots

Extends todays PC functions by adding

the utility of robotics qualities

Automation, mobility & senses

Movement/reaction, vision,
speech/sound, communication
Robotic DJs, Robotic home security
guards, Robotic organizers

Gives PC industry headroom for

evolution of PC utility
Fun-factor has been driving PC industry
of late

Gaming, movies, music robots are

seen as useful and fun

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What the PC Industry Brings to Robotics

Reliability
Compatibility/standards
Connectivity /standards
Expandability
Affordability
Long term product life
Power of x86 processing
Mature/simpler software
development environments
(Windows, Linux)

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VIA Platforms & Robots

Small Size

Low Power

Fanless design options

Connectivity

All components from one vendor

Cool Processing

Longer untethered life spans between charging

One-stop-shop

Greater design flexibility for size and shapes

Increased mobility through low weight

All the popular latest/fast connections to key robotic

peripherals (wi fi, web cams) and external controllers
and motors

X86

Popular & mature software development environment

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VIA & Platform Size

VIA leads the industry in new smaller

complete PC/Robot standard x86 platforms

Introduced Mini-ITX 17cm x 17cm

Q1 (2004) Nano-ITX 12cm x 12cm
VIA EPIA Series Mini-ITX
VIA Nano-ITX

But one of the big problems with

adapting PC motherboards for use in
mobile robots is the size. The new MiniITX form factor created by VIA
Technologies solves this problem.
-Robots.net

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VIA & Power Management

TDPmax
Pentium-M

22W

Antaur-M
21W

Performance
Mode

10W

12W

6W

12W
7W

6W

6W

4W
3.5W

0.55W

0.55W
0.25W

1.0 GHz

7W

4W

0.25W

1.2 GHz

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4W

3W

3.5W

0.35W

Battery
Mode

0.25W
0.25W

1.4 GHz

Idle Mode

Speed

Connectivity and PC-Bots

Connectivity

Cool Processing

Standardized and affordable connections to PC

peripherals
Serial and I2C for immediate/response controllers
VIA EPIA TC has onboard DC to DC converter
Fanless designs enable robot exteriors for dusty or
hazardous real world environments.

X86 One-stop-shop

Component compatibility, one support contact

VIA Confidential and Proprietary

VIA Confidential and Proprietary