NTHU Makes a Human-Like Robot Arm with Stratus HLS and Innovus

When it comes to jobs like lifting and manufacturing, robots can be sturdy and reliable machines, but what about for tasks like cooking and cleaning? Or even nursing and rehabilitation? Enter National Tsing Hua University’s (NTHU) dual-armed robot. Dubbed the “Tsing Hua gentleman” by the university’s president, Hocheng Hong, this robot is both strong and nimble, and it’s made so with the help of Cadence tools.

Modern AI using deep learning is getting more and more computationally expensive as opposed to using traditional algorithms. That is why NTHU is building an accelerated path to compute AI algorithms. It is with these algorithms that their robot is able to track and grasp objects with precision. One of the robot’s arms provides strength, while the other is as dexterous as a human hand and is gentle enough to pull out a tissue.

NTHU’s robot uses several technologies such as computer vision—which recognizes objects in the 3D space, trajectory planning by learning human behavior, collision avoidance of the robot arm, and so on. With Cadence Stratus High-Level Synthesis, they can evaluate the tradeoff between performance and resource overhead quickly. The designer’s intention can be described, and a variety of micro-architectures can be discerned at a higher design level.

Additionally, NTHU uses Cadence’s Innovus Implementation to bring the synthesized design down to the physical layout to extract realistic parameters, such as area, delay, and power consumption, which can be fed back to their virtual platform to improve the software-hardware co-optimization loop. Their design platform optimizes the trajectory control of the robot arm with a very efficient hardware architecture using high-level synthesis.

“Designed with Cadence” is a series of videos that showcases creative products and technologies that are accelerating industry innovation using Cadence tools and solutions. Learn more about how Cadence is lending NTHU a helping hand.

For more Designed with Cadence videos, check out the Cadence website and YouTube channel.