NXP Semiconductors N.V. has introduced its unified robotics platform, a hardware and software ecosystem built on NXP’s Neural Axis Architecture for robotic systems, with drone reference designs supporting initial functionality within 30 minutes.
Robotic subsystems can take developers months to integrate and validate across different form factors, NXP said. The company says its platform reduces that work to days or weeks through pre-integrated software and validated subsystem interoperability on a secure hardware foundation.
The open-source, modular robotics SDK includes supported drivers, middleware integration, reference applications, configuration tools and reusable software components, with integrations for PX4, Zephyr and ROS 2. The platform’s reference designs use secure processing, deterministic real-time control and safety-ready system architectures drawn from NXP’s hardware portfolio.
The initial designs support drones: autonomous compute and flight control use the NavQ95 based on the i.MX 95 applications processor; flight management uses the Tropic VMU/FMU based on the i.MX RT1064 crossover MCU; intelligent sensor networking uses the 100Base-T1 Sensor Node based on the MCX N947 MCU; and motor control uses an AM32-compliant electronic speed controller based on the MCX A13 MCU. Each design includes safety and security enablement for its primary processor, which can be enabled independently of robotics-specific functionality.
Jerome Legros, vice president and general manager of Robotics at NXP Semiconductors, said the platform brings together security, functional safety, real-time control and full lifecycle reliability in a scalable architecture for developing trusted physical AI systems.
NXP said the platform, including drone reference designs and the supporting SDK, is available as of November 9, 2026. Additional enablement for other autonomous systems, including service robots and autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), is expected in 2H 2027. More information is available at NXP.com/RoboticsSDK.
