BeagleBone Blue robotics controller board

[bluehash 1,581]

There is a new BeagleBone out in the field. This one is the "Blue", following the "Black" and "Green" ones.

Expected retail price is $80. 

Feature list:

Processor: Octavo Systems OSD3358 1GHz ARM® Cortex-A8
• 512MB DDR3 RAM
• 4GB 8-bit on-board flash storage
• 2×32-bit 200-MHz programmable real-time units (PRUs)
• On-board flash programmed with Linux distribution

Connectivity and sensors
• Battery: 2-cell LiPo support with balancing, 6-16V charger input
• Wireless: 802.11bgn, Bluetooth 4.1 and BLE
• Motor control: 8 6V servo out, 4 DC motor out, 4 quad enc in
• Sensors: 9 axis IMU, barometer
• Connectivity: HighSpeed USB 2.0 client and host
• Other easy connect interfaces: GPS, DSM2 radio, UARTs, SPI, I2C, analog, buttons, LEDs

Software Compatibility
• Debian, ROS, Ardupilot,
• Graphical programming, Cloud9 IDE on Node.js

 

 

[bluehash 1,581]

Video, with Jason K. showing a balancing robot using the board:

 

[yyrkoon 250]

Yeah, pretty cool little board. I was offered a chance to get a "beta" board in exchange for developing open source software for this specific board. Unfortunately, I was hired full time just a week prior by a person whom was contracting some work out to me . . . So I was, and am still busy doing work for my "day job".

I think one of the neatest things about this board, is the Octavo SoM. Which is pretty much an AM335x processor, with internal memory( no need to worry about getting DDR traces exactly right ), and from what I was told around 6 months ago from one of the team members of the SoM is that many of the processors "pins"( balls ) can be brought out and used. Where the beaglebone does have many I/O / peripheral options, but from memory, less than half of the pins are used( if memory serves correctly ).