Putting more computing power on a drone is getting easier. Integrating that computer with everything else on the aircraft is still another matter.
An onboard computer may need to communicate with the flight controller, connect to cameras, handle networking and provide access to peripheral interfaces, all while fitting within the size and weight limits of the aircraft.
ARK Electronics is taking a Raspberry Pi-based approach to that problem with the ARK Just A Pi, a compact carrier board built around the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 (CM5) and designed specifically for integration with drones, robots and other autonomous systems.
Rather than treating the CM5 as a standalone computer, the board provides many of the interfaces needed to connect it directly into an autonomous platform.
A built-in 100Mbps Ethernet switch feeds two JST-GH Ethernet connections, while additional JST-GH connectors provide access to UART, SPI, PWM, GPIO and USB. Two MIPI CSI camera connectors support direct camera connections, and the board also includes PCIe, Micro HDMI, MicroSD and USB-C.
The result is essentially an integration layer between the CM5 and the rest of the vehicle.
That could be useful as drones take on more processing locally rather than sending every workload elsewhere. A Linux computer aboard the aircraft could support tasks ranging from camera processing and communications to higher-level autonomy while leaving real-time flight control to the autopilot.
The board itself measures 40 × 55 × 13.1mm and weighs 19.5g, making size and weight part of the design consideration rather than an afterthought.
ARK also built the board in the United States and designed it to be NDAA compliant, an important distinction for drones and robotic systems intended for some U.S. government and defense-related applications.
A bundle pairs the carrier with a Wi-Fi-equipped Raspberry Pi CM5 with 2GB of RAM and a 64GB NDAA-compliant microSD card with ARK UI preinstalled.
The ARK Just A Pi is available now, giving developers another way to bring general-purpose Linux computing onto a drone or robot without having to build the CM5 integration hardware from scratch.
