[ros-users] Computer Recommendations

Fri Jan 7 10:07:16 UTC 2011

Actually, size and battery power is an issue for us. We are currently
deciding between a mini ITX, a mac mini and an EPIC express, all with Core 2
Duo.

On Fri, Jan 7, 2011 at 11:17 AM, Chris Brown <chrisneilbrown at gmail.com>wrote:

> I assume by asking this question you want something cheap
> If size and battery power isnt an issue you could just use a desktop m/b
> with a decent processor
>
>
> On Sat, Jan 1, 2011 at 3:11 AM, William Woodall <wjwwood at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> We have used the Zotac ION boards as well and we've had good success, I
>> just suggested the fit-pc2 because it uses less power, is inclosed, and is
>> smaller.  We had a few projects that demanded those things over processing
>> power.
>>
>> We used the
>> http://www.zotacusa.com/zotac-ionitx-a-u-atom-n330-1-6ghz-dual-core-mini-itx-intel-motherboard.html on
>> our autonomous lawnmower competition and we were running the robotpose_ekf @
>> ~30Hz and the entire move_base system at 20Hz and a custom vision algorithm
>> at ~10Hz that involved a birds eye transform, several filters, a pattern
>> matching step, and at least one hough transform and sometimes two.  We ran
>> fairly well, though we had some performance problems from time to time and
>> ultimately for next years entry we have upgraded to a full on core-i7 system
>> because size and power is not a concern for us on the lawnmower.
>>
>> Hope that gives you an idea of what the Zotac is capable of,
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> William Woodall
>> Graduate Software Engineering
>> Auburn University
>> w at auburn.edu
>> wjwwood at gmail.com
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>>
>> 2010/12/31 Björn Giesler <bjoern at giesler.de>
>>
>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I bought the PC for my robot a couple of months ago. I looked at the
>>> fit-pc2, which looked interesting, but ultimately I settled on this box:
>>>
>>> http://www.zotac.com/pdbrochures/ZBOX/ZBOX-HD-ID11_v1.pdf
>>>
>>> Main reason was that in addition to the Atom 550, it has an NVIDIA Ion
>>> graphics chip, which is supported by CUDA and offers a bit of extra
>>> performance for image processing. E.g. there are ports of SIFT/SURF feature
>>> detectors, Haar cascades and optical flow algorithms for CUDA. You can't use
>>> any of them directly on the Ion because they are mostly written for NVIDIA's
>>> big iron, but they should be easily portable. Not that I've tried yet.
>>>
>>> Zotac even has barebone motherboards with the Atom 550 / ION combination
>>> that take 12V from a power supply. I think this is currently one of the
>>> cheapest and most powerful solutions in this segment.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Björn
>>>
>>> Am 31.12.2010 um 07:17 schrieb Homer Manalo:
>>>
>>> > Thanks for the infos. The fit-pc2 looks very interesting, how would you
>>> compare it with this:
>>> http://www.pcx.com.ph/index.php/intel-blkd510mo-w-intel-atom-dc.html in
>>> terms of image processing capabilities?
>>> >
>>> > On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 4:13 AM, William Woodall <wjwwood at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> > If you are looking for a small, low power x86 type computer you should
>>> checkout the fit-pc2.  We've had good success with these computers.
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> >
>>> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>> > William Woodall
>>> > Graduate Software Engineering
>>> > Auburn University
>>> > w at auburn.edu
>>> > wjwwood at gmail.com
>>> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> > On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 6:56 AM, Bill Mania <maniabill at yahoo.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> > Homer,
>>> >
>>> > On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 06:24:22PM +0800, Homer Manalo wrote:
>>> > > I'd like to know what kind of computer are you using for your robots.
>>> I
>>> > > would also like to know what are your recommendations for a robot
>>> that will
>>> > > make a lot of use of image processing, say two stereo cameras. Are
>>> intel
>>> > > atoms sufficient for the job? What about beagleboards? Or the pico
>>> ITX from
>>> > > VIA?
>>> >
>>> > I'm in Chicago and building a hobby robot. I'm currently using an
>>> > old Dell notebook computer (with the display removed) and an AVR
>>> > microcontroller. I plan to have a single webcam, two motor
>>> > controllers, two ultrasonic rangefinders, a gyroscope and a GPS.
>>> >
>>> > So far, I seem to have sufficient computing capacity, but the
>>> > whole thing is a bit heavy. 8^(
>>> >
>>> > --
>>> > Bill Mania /'mæ ɲə/
>>> > dum vivimus, vivamus!
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>>> >
>>> >
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>>> >
>>> >
>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>> --
>>> Björn Giesler
>>> bjoern at giesler.de
>>> Verschlüssel Deine Emails -- oder schreibst Du Deine Briefe außen auf den
>>> Umschlag?
>>> Meinen Schlüssel findest Du auf
>>> http://giesler.biz/~bjoern/downloads/bg.asc -- schick mir Deinen!
>>> Mehr Informationen findest Du auf http://www.gnupg.org/index.de.html
>>>
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>>
>>
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>
>
> --
> Chris
> Aluminium Replacement Parts <http://arp.chrisb.id.au/>
> @arpartsau <http://twitter.com/arpartsau>
>
>
>
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