Congatec is actively contributing to the success of Robotics 4.0 projects by joining Intel Labs China's HERO ecosystem through the supply of its Com Express modules.

congatec, a leading company in embedded and edge computing technologies, announced today that its Com Express module has been selected for Intel Labs China's HERO (Heterogeneous Extensible Robot Open) platform, providing efficient design and flexible processor scalability.

The Robot 4.0 platform, developed by Intel Labs China's Autonomous Systems Lab, streamlines and accelerates the development process for next-generation IoT connected service robots, retail robots, and autonomous vehicles, and integrates artificial intelligence (AI) for research, training, and testing to enable them.

This open platform combines Intel's heterogeneous processor technology with Intel's OpenVINO AI Toolkit, providing a comprehensive suite of software libraries for local operations, navigation, planning, and human-robot interaction.

In this environment, congatec Com Express modules provide the required performance scalability from low-power Intel Atom to high-performance Intel Xeon processors, with the standard configuration featuring the conga-TC370 Computer-on-Module and the 8th generation Intel Core SoC processor.

GloThe bee robotics market was valued at $23.7 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow by approximately 20% annually, reaching $74 billion by 2026. To sustain this robust growth, robots must have increased flexibility and autonomy, as well as the ability to rapidly configure themselves to expand the scope of tasks and applications. This necessitates low-latency computing, making real-time edge computing a key technology.

“The HERO platform is a compact, heterogeneous, low-power, and high-performance system platform solution built by Intel Labs China specifically for the development of intelligent robots, such as service robots, retail robots, and autonomous vehicles,” said Dr. Song Jijiang, vice president and director of Intel Labs China. “Three years of continuous development and a heterogeneous and open approach have made the HERO platform the perfect development platform for a wide range of Robotics 4.0 projects. Going forward, Intel Labs China will continue to focus on four major areas: artificial intelligence, intelligent transportation, wireless data communication, and service robotics, and collaborate with industry, academia, and research partners to leverage data and drive the digital transformation of industries together.”

Becky Lin, General Manager of congatec China, said: “congatec is very excited to be part of Intel Labs China’s HERO ecosystem. Robotics 4.0 is a progressive and future-oriented technology field that combines AI with the OpenVINO Toolkit to support the optimization of deep learning models on Intel’s heterogeneous computing hardware. Flexible edge computing platforms are a paradigm of Robotics 4.0, and congatec Com Express modules will bring their potential to fruition in this field.”