NXP’s Latest HoverGames Challenge Promotes Sustainable Food Ecosystems

October 09, 2022NXP Semiconductors is collaborating with Bosch Sensortec for this year’s hands-on coding and hardware challenge, inspiring developers to create innovative drone and rover solutions to help balance our food ecosystem. NXP’s full announcement regarding the new challenge is posted below.

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What’s new: The third installment NXP Semiconductor’s HoverGames Challenge delves into the world of vision with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, inspiring developers to come up with game-changing ideas to make our connected world better, safer and more secure. The goal of this year’s HoverGames is to challenge developers to create solutions for a more sustainable food ecosystem. The competition will provide entrants with exclusive early access to NXP’s NavQPlus Companion Computer, which features the i.MX 8M Plus Applications Processor with embedded Neural Network Processor for machine learning acceleration and ROS2 enablement. for building drones and rovers with more intelligence and decision-making capabilities. . Additionally, Bosch Sensortec will support the competition by providing smart sensing solutions for NXP HoverGames development kits, including the BME688 gas sensor with AI and the BMI088, a high-performance inertial sensor. A special Bosch Sensortec Sustainability Award will recognize the most efficient sensor-based solution pursuing sustainability goals.

why is it important: Humanity’s growth and success over the past few thousand years is undoubtedly due to our ability to feed ourselves. But the world’s population continues to grow rapidly, which means we need to produce more food. Whether it’s shifting cultivation in the tropics, commercial grain farming in Europe or tea plantations in Asia, we need to make all different types of agriculture, food production and its supply chain equally efficient. as possible, without harming habitats and the diversity of nature. We must also respond to new demands for organic food, while taking into account the millions of people who depend on the food industry for their income. The innovative use of technology is key to meeting these challenges. For this reason, NXP HoverGames Challenge 3 invites the global developer community to show how drones and rovers can help make our food ecosystem more sustainable.

“Innovation is a driving force in the fight against climate change,” said Dr. Ralf Schellin, Vice President and Head of MEMS Product Area at Bosch Sensortec. “That’s why we’re excited to partner with NXP on the NXP HoverGames, which provide a great opportunity to tackle real-world social and environmental issues and enable cross-industry collaboration.”

“Innovation and sustainability must go hand in hand,” said Iain Galloway, Mobile Robotics, Drones and Rovers, Program Lead Engineer at NXP. “We are thrilled that Bosch Sensortec is supporting this year’s NXP HoverGames with their AI-enabled gas sensor and offering the special sustainability award. to design solutions that benefit society and the planet.”

More details: Innovative ways to use drones and rovers to support sustainable food production have yet to be devised. The application could be in a desert, over oceans or in a tropical rainforest. Alternatively, it could focus on our changing climate and how it might affect food production or protect animals and insects to better maintain biodiversity. Drone and rover development kits include all the components needed to set up the projects, including a motor, ESC, servo, flight controller, and GPS. The PX4.org open source flight stack allows developers to support the Flight Management Unit (FMUK66).

Additional components include the NavQPlus, which features NXP’s i.MX 8M Plus applications processor and incorporates ROS2 enablement, allowing developers to take their machine learning workloads to the edge. The on-chip Neural Processing Unit (NPU) computing performance of up to 2.3 trillion operations per second (TOPS) efficiently handles intelligent driving and image recognition tasks. The NXP eIQ machine learning software development environment, which includes a workflow tool, inference engines, neural network compilers, and optimized libraries, enables developers to easily create complete system-level applications . Additional options for the development kit include the NXP T1 Ethernet switch and UAVCAN UCANS32K146 node boards.

The development kits also include Bosch Sensortec’s BME688, the first gas sensor with artificial intelligence (AI) and integrated high-linearity, high-accuracy pressure, humidity and temperature sensors. The compact, low-power sensor can detect a wide range of gases in the parts-per-billion (ppb) range. The gas scanner can be customized based on sensitivity, selectivity, data rate and power consumption and adapted to a specific application using Bosch BME AI-Studio tools. Thanks to the fully computational process of the AI ​​Studio server, it is possible to dynamically collect data from all sensors in the field, to recycle and continuously improve the algorithm. For example, in a drone or rover application, the BME688 could detect the presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or sulfur (VSCs) as an indicator of air quality, emissions or bacterial growth in food crops.

How to get involved: Apply your incredibly creative and innovative ideas to help create a sustainable food ecosystem. Sign up to be among the first to know when registration opens for NXP HoverGames Challenge 3. For tutorials, tips and advice, troubleshooting, and more, check out the NXP HoverGames gitbook. Bookmark HoverGames.com for entry and prize details, webinars and online support, and submit the required entry by November 6. The contest ends on February 19 and the winners will be announced on March 9.

Rich Handley was the editor of RFID log since 2005. Outside of the RFID world, Rich has written, edited, or contributed to numerous pop culture books. You can contact Rich by email.