STMicroelectronics’ STM32 MCU powers robot cars from Anki

STMicroelectronics has announced that its STM32 microcontroller was selected by Anki, a robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) startup, for use in their first product – Anki Drive, in which consumers can download an app on their compatible iOS devices to interact and race against intelligent robotic miniature race cars.

Each car in Anki Drive analyzes data from the race track 500 times per second. The performance and processing capacity of ST’s STM32 microcontroller delivers the real-time responsiveness in the Anki Drive cars, which are equipped with optical sensors, wireless chips, motors, and over 20,000 lines of code. The ARM Cortex™ M-based STM32 also provides excellent power efficiency giving Anki Drive users the perfect balance of functionality and battery life.

“The STM32 microcontroller was selected for several reasons, including its computational power, footprint and peripheral portfolio,” said Hanns Tappeiner, Co-Founder & President, Anki, Inc. “The ability of the STM32 to process data quickly, as well as offering highly integrated peripherals such as a General Purpose DMA, made it into a great microcontroller for Anki Drive cars.”

“In their impressive demos, Anki showed off what might be the most advanced intersection of consumer-grade artificial intelligence and robotics and we are proud to have the STM32 microcontroller, with its efficient and well-designed architecture, DMA and rich peripheral set, powering Anki’s vision,” said Michel Buffa, General Manager, Microcontroller Division, STMicroelectronics. “We see Anki Drive as a category-creating product that will inspire the development community to come up with many innovative applications built on the combination of artificial intelligence and world-class microcontroller technologies.”