Helios is a small computing platform designed for real-time image processing in small autonomous vehicles, such as R/C car sized ground vehicles or small UAVs. Current technology does not allow us to meet the strict performance requirements needed by some vision and image processing algorithms using conventional embedded processors. The Helios platform not only allows us to meet real-time performance constraints but provides tremendous flexibility as a research platform for exploring the design space. Yet Helios is general enough to be used for a much wider range of applications.

At the heart of the platform is a Xilinx Virtex-4 FX FPGA. This new line of 90 nm FPGAs represents the state-of-the-art in reconfigurable technology, giving us higher performance and up to 50% power savings over the previous generation of FPGAs. The FPGA includes one or two PowerPC processor cores as well as sophisticated reconfigurable logic. This allows us to combine the flexibility of one or more high-performance, embedded processor cores with custom image processing hardware. In addition to various other components, the board also includes high-performance, low-power SRAM and low-power mobile SDRAM to create a complete computing system.

For more detailed technical information, please visit the Helios specifications page.

Helios was designed with flexibility in mind. Other than image processing, it was not designed for a specific application. Daughter boards with application specific hardware can be added to the board through a 120-pin expansion header. Such hardware might include one or more cameras, servo ports, magnetometers, wireless transceivers, or other sensors. This allows cost to be consolidated into a single reusable board that can be used for a wide variety of applications.

Although Helios was intended for image processing on small vehicles, it is in fact a fairly general FPGA development board. It can be used for a variety of embedded projects. For any application where high-performance computing is needed in a small, low-power package, Helios may be an ideal solution.

For more information, feel free to browse this web site. If you would like further information or have questions about obtaining Helios, please visit our contact page to request information.