QBit Semiconductor, a Taiwan-based fabless chip design company focused on high-end image processing and motion control, unveiled its robotics and drone chipset roadmap at SEMICON Taiwan 2026, targeting what's known as physical AI, meaning AI systems that directly control physical machines. The company had a notable presence at the event within the Taiwan Stock Exchange Pavilion.
To address the space and power constraints in dexterous robotic hands with more than 20 degrees of freedom, meaning 20 independent points of movement, QBit introduced its highly integrated QB88XX series. This system-on-chip (SoC) consolidates control of multiple robotic joints onto a single chip, reducing both system cost and energy consumption. Built on what QBit calls a Cerebellar Model Articulation Controller (CMAC) architecture, named after the part of the brain that coordinates fine motor movement, the chip combines quad-core Arm Cortex-A78 processors and a neural processing unit (NPU) to carry out high-level "brain" commands, alongside a separate Arm Cortex-M7 core, a component called TGEN, and a secondary NPU dedicated to fine motor servo control. The chip supports up to 32 motors along with AI-based servo tuning, and integrates PCIe, USB, CAN bus, and camera interfaces suited to robotic arms and industrial automation applications.
For drones, QBit is pursuing a two-phase strategy. In the first phase, running from 2026 to 2028, the company plans to enter entry-level drone markets with its QB77XX chip, which supports up to 32GB of LPDDR5/5X memory along with PCIe, USB 3.2, and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. Powered by the TGEN component and an Arm Cortex-M33 core for real-time flight control, the chip is designed to reduce the number of separate circuit boards needed across a drone's mission computer and flight controller. In the second phase, beginning in 2029, QBit plans to launch a drone-specific QB88XX SoC that unifies flight control and mission computing into a single chip, adding optical flow control (used for visual motion tracking) and target tracking capabilities.
QBit also demonstrated its QB77XX single-object tracking system at the event, which maintains a lock on a tracked object even during brief visual occlusions, tested at relative speeds up to 60 km/h with flight times of 10 to 15 minutes. The company plans to showcase a multi-object tracking version in the fourth quarter of 2026.
On cybersecurity, QBit's QB7 series passed U.S. NIST CAVP (Cryptographic Algorithm Validation Program) validation for post-quantum cryptography using the ML-DSA algorithm in 2025. The company's drone solutions incorporate post-quantum-secured boot processes for device authentication and firmware protection.
