Analysis:
As a robust, highly functional development platform, the TDK RoboKit1 provides robotics developers with a solid technical basis for prototyping and development that simplifies robotics engineering and reduces time to market. But more importantly, the TDK RoboKit1 is just the latest addition to TDK’s SmartRobotics product family and solution set. The SmartRobotics ‘platform’ also includes a number of boards, SoCs and reference designs developed by partner Qualcomm Robotics, and other TDK technologies. With the release of the TDK RoboKit1, InvenSense, and its $13 billion multinational parent company TDK, is making a statement regarding the business opportunities presented the burgeoning robotics sector, and that its intentions for providing critical enabling technologies for robotics developers extend beyond a single development board. Taken together, the TDK RoboKit1 and SmartRobotics suite demonstrates that a company with boatloads of technical wherewithal, deep pockets, and similarly equipped partners, is clearly intent on producing a solutions ecosystem for robotics development going forward. - Dan Kara