A single-board computer is a compact computer built on one circuit board, often used as the high-level brain of a robot. Boards such as Raspberry Pi and NVIDIA Jetson can run a full operating system, process camera images, connect to networks, and make planning decisions. This matters because modern robots often need to recognize objects, map spaces, and choose actions faster than a simple controller can handle.
The single-board computer gives the robot computing power while staying small, low cost, and energy efficient.
Key Facts
- A single-board computer combines CPU, memory, storage interface, power regulation, and input-output ports on one board.
- CPU performance is often estimated by total operations per second, but real robot performance also depends on memory speed, software, and sensors.
- Power used by a board is P = IV, where P is power in watts, I is current in amperes, and V is voltage in volts.
- For vision data, raw image size per frame = width x height x color channels x bits per channel.
- A common robot control split is single-board computer for vision and planning, microcontroller for real-time motor and sensor timing.
- Communication links such as UART, I2C, SPI, USB, Ethernet, and CAN move commands and data between the robot brain and hardware.
Vocabulary
- Single-board computer
- A complete small computer built on one circuit board that can run an operating system and higher-level robot software.
- CPU
- The central processing unit is the main processor that runs general instructions, decision logic, and most robot programs.
- GPU
- The graphics processing unit is a processor designed for many parallel calculations, useful for image processing and machine learning.
- Microcontroller
- A small embedded controller used for reliable real-time tasks such as reading sensors, generating motor signals, and timing events.
- Input-output port
- An input-output port is a physical or electrical connection used to send data to sensors, motors, displays, or other electronics.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Using the single-board computer for every timing-critical task is a mistake because a general operating system may pause tasks unpredictably, causing poor motor control or missed sensor readings.
- Ignoring the power budget is a mistake because a board that needs 5 V at 3 A can reset or throttle if the supply cannot deliver enough current.
- Connecting motors directly to the single-board computer pins is a mistake because GPIO pins cannot supply motor current and can be damaged by voltage spikes.
- Assuming more CPU cores always means a faster robot is a mistake because camera bandwidth, memory speed, software efficiency, and real-time control limits can become the bottleneck.
Practice Questions
- 1 A single-board computer requires 5 V and draws 2.5 A while running vision software. What power does it use in watts?
- 2 A camera sends 1280 x 720 color images at 30 frames per second with 3 color channels and 8 bits per channel. How many megabytes per second of raw image data are produced? Use 1 MB = 1,000,000 bytes.
- 3 A robot uses a single-board computer for object detection and a microcontroller for motor control. Explain why this division is better than making the single-board computer generate all motor signals directly.