Aries offers custom-made smart embedded vision service
According to Aries Embedded’s managing director, Andreas Widder, “off-the-shelf products often cannot meet the various complex requirements of embedded vision projects”. The company selects optimal microprocessors and FPGAs for its boards and services, he explained.
“For simple vision applications that can also use artificial intelligence, Aries Embedded provides comparatively inexpensive products with the system in package (SiP) MSRZG2UL and MSMP1. The FPGA-based system on modules (SoM) from . . . Microchip, and Xilinx are more flexible and meet higher demands. The areas of application range from industrial image processing, agriculture, robotics, automated driving, UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) and drones to medical technology.
Embedded vision modules based on FPGAs can use almost any sensor in terms of light spectrum, resolution, frame rate and electrical interface. For IP, Aries Embedded maps the complete image path from the data source (image sensor, camera) to the data sink (monitor, storage medium) using suitable compression methods such as MJPEG compression and H.264/H.265, which are available as fixed IP blocks in the FPGA. Alternatively, it integrates corresponding soft cores. IP development also covers image processing, including white balance, brightness, sharpness as well as further image processing.
In addition to standard products, Aries Embedded designs the appropriate hardware that mechanically corresponds exactly to a customer’s specifications.
The M100PF and M100PFS SoMs use Microchip’s PolarFire (SoC) FPGA architecture. The M100PFS supports four high performance 64-bit RISC-V cores. The C-Vision kit is based on the proven MCVEVP FPGA development board with Intel’s Cyclone V SoC FPGA and includes two Basler dart cameras, an adapter card, and an AI accelerator card. The UAV and robotics platform URP, developed by Topic Embedded Systems, available in the Aries Embedded portfolio, offers an integrated single board design based on the Xilinx Zynq UltraScale+ MPSoC.
For applications with lower vision functionality requirements, Aries Embedded offers modules based on Renesas’ RZG2UL/RZFive and STMicroelectronics’ STM32MP1. These microprocessors are “much less expensive and more convenient” to use than FPGAs, said Andreas Widder, adding that the Renesas RZ/V2L architecture supports artificial intelligence applications.
In addition to the standard modules, the company also develops the complete hardware and basic software.
The versatile, OSM (open standard module) -compatible MSRZG2UL and MSRZFive SiPs are based on Renesas’ RZ/G2UL and RZ/Five single-core microprocessors. The RZ/G2UL microprocessor contains a Cortex-A55 (1.0GHz) CPU and a Cortex-M33 coprocessor, while the RZ/Five has a RISC-V CPU core (AX45MP Single) running at 1.0GHz.
The MSMP1 SiP integrates a STM32MP1 CPU from STMicroelectronics with high-performance single or dual-arm CortexA7 cores (up to 800MHz) combined with a Cortex-M4 core (up to 209 MHz).
The range of embedded systems will be exhibited at Vision 2022, in Stuttgart, Germany, on stand C08 in Hall 8 (4 to 6 October).
