Company: VIA Technologies
Web site: VIATechnologies.com
Using built-in video cameras, small robots can now do normal household chores, like vacuuming. VIA Technologies is hoping to accelerate the robotic evolution. Up to now, robot makers have been forced to create new hardware and software every time a new idea comes along, but by incorporating the x86 platform, these robots can easily be integrated into normal computers, and do what was once difficult to execute. But with the size of motherboards, how can a non-Terminator-sized robot be built affordably without sacrificing parts?
VIA Technologies has been offering smaller and smaller motherboards. With the special PC-Bot, a mini-ITX and nano-ITX platform, the company now brings low-power and small-size to robotics. As GPF’s Jeremy Smith discovers, kits can even be bought to build a robot out of your own computer.
[audio:http://www.uaf.edu/kuac/gpfault/audio/12-3-03pieros.mp3]
