ADLINK's Express-HL COM Express to power Cornell University AUV in RoboSub competition
NewsJuly 25, 2014
San Jose, CA. ADLINK Technology has announced its sponsorship of the Cornell University autonomous underwater vehicle (CUAUV) Gemini submarine, which will participate in the 17th annual international RoboSub competition July 28-August 3.
The CUAUV’s Gemini submarine is powered by ADLINK’s Express-HL COM Express computer-on-module, featuring a 4th generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processor with Mobile Intel QM87 Express chipset. The Express-HL acts as Gemini’s lone on-board computer, tasked with all vision processing and decision-making required by the AUV.
“When we started designing Gemini back in August (2013), we knew that we wanted something smaller and more powerful than the 3rd generation Intel Core i7 processor on Mini-ITX form factor that we used on our 2013 vehicle,” explained Markus Burkardt, CUAUV team leader and Cornell University senior. “We decided that a quad-core computer-on-module was the best option to reduce overall vehicle weight and footprint without giving up performance, so we started contacting vendors for support. We were really happy when ADLINK agreed to be our sponsor.”
ADLINK’s Express-HL is a COM Express COM.0 R2.1 Basic Size Type 6 module supporting the 64-bit 4th Generation Intel Core i7/i5/3 or Celeron processor with CPU, graphics processor, and memory controller on the same chip. The Express-HL supports Intel Hyper-Threading Technology (up to 4 cores, 8 threads) and DDR3 dual-channel memory at 1333/1600 MHz to provide excellent overall performance.
The CUAUV team is made up of 43 Cornell students who spend more than 20,000 hours per year designing and testing the team’s AUV. They have won four competitions in the last five years.
“ADLINK is proud to help with the efforts of such a dedicated and successful group of engineers,” said Elizabeth Campbell, general manager of ADLINK, North America. “The skills they are developing now will directly translate into the design of autonomous vehicles that are critical to many industries, including factory automation, geographic exploration, wildlife and environment preservation, and – of course – national defense.”
The international RoboSub competition is co-sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Foundation and the U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) with the goal of advancing the development of AUVs. The event serves to foster ties between young engineers and organizations developing AUV technologies. The competition mission elements and tasks are designed to simulate real-world challenges, such as acoustic sensing, navigation, and visual recognition of objects.
The international RoboSub competition will take place at the Space and Naval Warfare Command Research facility in San Diego, CA. For more information, visit www.auvsifoundation.org/foundation/competitions/robosub.
