COT’S PICKS

BLOOMY® Announces the midUTSTM Electronics Functional Test System

Diverse Robotics and Autonomous Systems Test Applications Economically Solved by the Latest Universal Test System from BLOOMY

Bloomy Controls, Inc. announces the newest member to its Universal Test System (UTSTM) product family, the midUTSTM Electronics Functional Test System. Combining benchtop portability with powerful test functionality, the midUTS is BLOOMY’s response to the extremely fast-paced technology evolution and commercialization of robotics and autonomous systems design and manufacturing.

The midUTS combines high-performance, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) instruments with BLOOMY’s signal-routing PCBAs, a built-in or USB-connected PC, and a pair of high-integrity, production-grade cables connected to an adjacent benchtop fixture, creating an extremely flexible yet cost-effective solution for testing a wide variety of printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs).

The new midUTS is ideally suited for the following:

• Robotics and autonomous systems test

• PCBA and subassembly functional test

• Engineering development, manufacturing, quality assurance, and repair depot testing

• Electronic product OEM, CM, and EMS firms

• Applications that require transporting and sharing test assets among multiple stakeholders

• Applications with typical units under test (UUTs) that include robotic and autonomous vehicle controls, computers, and sensors

A key feature of the midUTS is its ability to rapidly automate sequences of functional tests using NI TestStand and BLOOMY’s EFT Module. Available on all of BLOOMY’s UTSTM family of electronics functional test systems, the EFT Module for TestStand helps you intuitively develop test sequences from the perspective of the UUT instead of the test equipment, dramatically reducing development time.

This balance between powerful features and affordable cost allows original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to automate earlier in the product development lifecycle, substantially increasing product quality and minimizing time to market. Robotics and autonomous systems manufacturers – often facing rapid technology changes and intense timeline pressures – can efficiently standardize on the midUTS for streamlining benchtop PCBA bring-up during product development, manufacturing functional testing of PCBAs and sub-assemblies, and conducting diagnostic testing.

Additionally, the portability of the new midUTS makes it easily transported to multiple areas of a factory or readily handed off from OEM to a contract manufacturer (CM). The result is a single system that spans the diverse needs of several product development and manufacturing phases, offering substantial economic and maintenance benefits.

Bloomy

Building a high-performance ecosystem for Arm-based SMARC modules

congatec is pleased to announce that it is expanding its strategic solutions portfolio in the Arm processor sector to include Texas Instruments (TI) processors. The first solution platform is the conga-STDA4, a SMARC Computer-on-Module featuring the industrial-grade Arm® Cortex®-based TDA4VM processor. Using a system-on-chip architecture, TI incorporates accelerated vision, AI processing, real-time control, and functional safety capabilities into their TDA4VM processor. This Dual Arm Cortex-A72-based module is designed for mobile industrial machinery requiring near-field analytics, such as automated guided vehicles and autonomous mobile robots, construction, and agricultural machinery. Further application areas are any vision-focused industrial or medical solution requiring powerful but energy-efficient artificial intelligence (AI) processors at the edge. Integrating the powerful TI TDA4VM processor on a standardized Computer-on-Module simplifies the design-in process of this powerful processor technology, allowing designers in various embedded industries to focus on their core competencies. This is advantageous as companies save up-front costs and shorten the time to market compared to fully customized designs, mainly if they produce a lower quantity of their solutions.

“Collaborating with a computer-on-module provider like congatec on their application-ready modules is a key benefit to engineers working with our Arm Cortex-based processors like the TDA4VM. Industrial OEMs, especially those who don’t have the resources to invest in full custom designs, can benefit from innovative SMARC COMs that help streamline design while enabling high design security and low NRE costs,” said Srik Gurrapu, Industrial Business Lead, Processors, Texas Instruments.

“We see that autonomous driving based on AI and computer vision is one of the most important markets for embedded and edge computing technologies besides the second major growth accelerator, digitization. TI offers highly-integrated processors for such applications. Our value-adding Computer-on-Module approach will open new markets for edge-server-grade, AI-driven, high-throughput technology. With all the added values, we will make TI processors available on our credit-card-sized SMARC Computer-on-Module ecosystem. These include fast prototyping and application development, cost-effective carrier board designs, and ultra-reliable, responsive, and performant resources from design-in to series production of OEM systems,” explains Martin Danzer, Director of Product Management at congatec.

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