Qualcomm Robotics RB5 5G AI robots on pre-order now

Today Qualcomm revealed the "world's first 5G and AI-enabled robotics platform" in the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform. Qualcomm is basically the biggest brand in the tech industry when it comes to processing chips for smartphones, especially when it comes to Android devices. The Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform utilizes a variety of brand collaborations between Qualcomm and some of the biggest "ecosystem players" in robotics.

The Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Development Kit is the hardware the company's prepared to deliver to allow developers to create the next generation of AI-enabled robotics software. The Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform is the key for a wide variety of companies to get moving quickly in the AI-enabled robotics industry. Qualcomm's revealed that they've already teamed up with 20+ early adopter companies to evaluate the platform.

SEE TOO: Qualcomm wants to do for robots what Snapdragon did for phones

Qualcomm's also revealed a list of key "ecosystem players" that are developing necessary hardware and software to move the platform forward with robotics applications. Companies developing applications listed by Qualcomm this week include 96Boards, Acontis, ADLINK, AirMap, AirServe, Airtonomy, AlwaysAI, Augmented Pixels, Autocore, Autoware Foundation, Canonical, DeepEdge.ai, DreamVu, Dronecode, Fractal.ai, GlobalEdge, Innominds Software, InOrbit, Intel RealSense, Lantronix, Linaro, LiteOn, Kudan, ModalAI, Nod, Open Robotics, Panasonic, PathPartners, Pilot.AI, Shoreline IoT, SLAMCORE, TDK, Thundercomm, and Tier IV.

"With the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform, Qualcomm Technologies will help accelerate growth in a wide array of robotics segments such as autonomous mobile robots (AMR), delivery, inspection, inventory, industrial, collaborative robots and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), enabling Industry 4.0 robotics use cases, and laying the foundation for the UAV Traffic Management (UTM) space," said Dev Singh, senior director, business development and head of autonomous robotics, drones and intelligent machines, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

The platform works with the Qualcomm QRB5165 processor, which in turn works with fifth-generation Qualcomm AI Engine tech. The platform works with Qualcomm Hexagon Tensor Accelerator (HTA) to manage "restricted power budgets", and it works with both 4G and 5G connectivity. The platform works with a "powerful" image signal processor (ISP) with the ability to support seven cameras at once. These cameras also roll with a dedicated computer vision engine for enhanced video analytics (EVA).

Above you'll see a list of tech included with the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Development Kit. Commercial products based on the RB5 platform are "expected to be available in 2020." Prospective developers can take a peek at the Qualcomm Robotics RB5 platform at Thundercomm's webpage where the kit is on pre-order now. A Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Core Kit and a Qualcomm Robotics RB5 Vision Kit are available on pre-order now, for $495 and $695 USD respectively.