Edge AI + IoT = AIoT Computing from BVM

Edge AI - AIoT Computing from BVM

What is Edge Artificial Intelligence (AI)  – and why is it actually needed?

Edge AI Computing is typically deployed for scenarios where collated data needs to be analysed close to the point of source of extraction; a good example would be a camera policing a high speed production line detecting for faults or anomalies during the production process. Data can be looked at in ‘real time’ (i.e. pretty much there & then) or via sending the data to a cloud based system for analysis at a later point in time.

However, Edge AI provides for added benefits especially when looked at in comparison to the traditionally used ‘Cloud’. Take, for instance, real-time data analysis where Edge AI analyses the data locally – right at the point at where its being collected. This reduces latency since the data doesn’t have to be transmitted to the cloud, (to be looked at a later point in time) and consequently facilitates for making real-time (faster) decisions. This kind of ability can be critical for self-driving cars, robots in factories, fast moving production……etc.

Since Edge AI doesn’t require a connection, it can also provide for reduced costs around data communication in comparison to Cloud AI. The same applies to power consumption as well – which is an enabler for the creation of better wearable devices that can be useful in environments such as hospitals. From a security aspect, since most of the data stays ‘local’ Edge AI supports the needed securities around data protection. In cloud AI, the data is streamed and stored in the cloud which can potentially open the door to vulnerabilities.

An examples of where Edge AI is deployed is on autonomous robots to help the device understand & react (making calculated decisions) in the immediate environment that surrounds it. Such a device will rely on the analysis of real-time data to ensure the safety of others – the data being collated via a multitude of on-board sensors.

AIoT: When AI Meets the Internet of Things

While IoT provides data, Artificial Intelligence acquires the power to provide for responses – offering the opportunity for both creativity and the context to drive further actions; as the data is delivered and  analysed with AI, businesses can make informed decisions. AI IoT succeeds in providing the following :-

  • Management, analysation and provision of meaningful insights from collated data
  • Fast and accurate analysis
  • Localised and centralised intelligence
  • Confidentiality and data privacy
  • Maintenance of security against data attack

The Benefits of AI Enabled IoT

Combining IoT & artificial intelligence leads to a broad range of benefits for both companies and consumers alike – such as  proactive intervention, a more personalised experience and intelligent automation. The following are some of the business benefits that can result through combining the technologies :-

Arm Robot

Boosting Operational Efficiency

AI in IoT ‘crunches’ the constant streams of data and detects the patterns not immediately visible via more simpler methodologies. In addition, machine learning coupled with AI can predict operation conditions and detect the parameters to be modified to ensure the best outcomes. Hence, intelligent IoT offers an insight into which processes are redundant and time-consuming and which tasks can be fine-tuned to enhance efficiency.

Maintenance

Eliminates Costly Unplanned Downtime

In some sectors like offshore oil & gas and industrial manufacturing, equipment breakdown can result in costly unplanned downtime. Predictive maintenance with AI enabled IoT allows you to predict the equipment failure in advance and schedule orderly maintenance procedures – therefore, avoiding the side effects of downtime.

Production machine

Increase IoT Scalability

IoT devices range from mobile devices and high-end computers to low-end sensors. However, the most common IoT ecosystem includes low-end sensors, which offers floods of data. An AI-powered IoT ecosystem analyses and summarises the data from one device before transferring it to other devices. As such, it reduces large volumes of data to a more easily, handleable level and allows connecting a large number of IoT devices. This is called scalability.

Gear Oil Drop Oil in Gear

Better Risk Management

Pairing AI with IoT helps businesses to understand, as well as predict, a broad range of risks and automate for a prompt response. It allows them to better handle areas such as financial loss, employee safety and cyber threats.

Conveyor

New and Enhanced Products & Services

NLP (Natural Language Processing) is getting better at allowing people to communicate with devices. IoT and AI together can directly create new products or enhance existing products & services by enabling the business to rapidly process & analyse the data.

AI 1 AI Technologies

AI Technologies: An Overview of the Different Types of Artificial Intelligence

There are several different types of AI, which can be broadly categorized based on their capabilities and the approach used to create them. Here is an overview of the main types of AI.

AI 2 The Impact of AI

The Impact of AI: A Closer Look at How AI is Transforming the Way We Work and Live

AI is having a profound impact on a wide range of industries, from healthcare and transportation to military and automation. It is changing the way we work and live.

AI 3 Artificial Intelligence Hardware

Artificial Intelligence Hardware: From CPUs and GPUs, to TPUs, VPUs and FGPAs

The hardware required to use AI can vary depending on the specific AI application. Some AI algorithms are computationally intensive and require powerful hardware to run effectively.

IoT 1 The IoT Evolution

The IoT Evolution: A Closer Look at IIoT, AIoT and MIoT

In this article, we take a closer look at four key types of IoT: Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), Cellular Internet of Things (CIoT) and Mobile Internet of Things (MIoT).

IoT 2 Comparing Cloud Services

Comparing Cloud Services: Microsoft Azure vs. Amazon Web Services vs. Google Cloud

We take a closer look at the different cloud services offered by Microsoft Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud and compare them in terms of features, pricing, and performance.

IoT 3 IoT Hardware Development

IoT Hardware Development: From Concept to Creation

Learn how BVM can help you design and develop IoT hardware. Discover the power of AIoT and how it can enhance your IoT devices and take your IoT project to the next level with BVM’s expertise.

ASRockInd iEPF 9000S iEP 9000E Series Edge AIoT Platform

BVM and AI: How to bring an Edge AI solution to market

  • Development kits to help test and prototype your edge AI solution are readily available, but DEV Kits are rarely suitable for use in the environment where they will ultimately be deployed.

  • A purpose-built industrial-grade AI system based on Nvidia Jetson, Intel Movidius, or a high-end GPU, will be more appropriate and will offer more reliable long-term operation.

  • Our edge AI systems are designed for use in environments where shock, vibration, or extreme temperatures can be a problem, and will run 24/7 for many years.

Common Applications for Edge AI

Medical Imaging

Medical Imaging Edge AIoT

Industrial Automation

Industrial Automation Edge AIoT

Transport and Surveillance

Transport and Surveillance Edge AIoT
AI -  Edge AIoT

AI Technologies

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a method of using computers for perception, logic and learning. AI uses machine learning so that AI system performance improves over time and with more data analysis. This is achieved using Deep Learning algorithms based on neural networks which connect inputs and outputs in a similar way to the way brain works. Problem solving is learnt by the system itself and not hard coded by computer technologists. Deep Learning is used to Train the AI systems by providing data repeatedly to hone the system’s ability. When the AI system is trained it works to achieve the end goal which is to perform analysis or decision making.

Artificial Intelligence is achieved by using systems with a combination of high performance scalable processors such as the Intel Xeon; FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays); Vision Processing Units (VPUs) and Neural Network Processors (NNPs).

Machine Learning

machine learning algorithms technology

Machine Vision

Machine vision sensor camera

Computer Vision

image face recognition ai

AI Hardware Accelerators

GPU | CPU | VPU | FPGA

An AI accelerator is a kind of specialised hardware accelerator or computer system created to accelerate artificial intelligence apps, particularly artificial neural networks, machine learning, robotics, and other data-intensive or sensor-driven tasks. They usually have novel designs and typically focus on low-precision arithmetic, novel dataflow architectures or in-memory computing capability.

NVIDIA: Jetson (GPU)

AIoT - NVIDIA: Jetson (GPU)

Nvidia Jetson is a series of embedded computing boards from Nvidia. The Jetson TK1, TX1 and TX2 models all carry a Tegra processor (or SoC) from Nvidia that integrates an ARM architecture central processing unit (CPU). Jetson is a low-power system and is designed for accelerating machine learning applications.

NVIDIA JetPack SDK is the most comprehensive solution for building AI applications. It bundles all the Jetson platform software, including TensorRT, cuDNN, CUDA Toolkit, VisionWorks, GStreamer, and OpenCV, all built on top of L4T with LTS Linux kernel.

JetPack provides your Jetson Developer Kit with the latest OS image, libraries and APIs, samples, and documentation, as well as developer tools.

CPU + GPU Computing

AIoT - gpu accelerator mxm pc

A Graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialised chip that can do rapid processing, primarily for the purpose of rendering images. They have become a key part of modern supercomputing.  They have been used in growing new hyperscale data centres and have become accelerators, speeding up all sorts of tasks – from encryption, to networking, to AI. GPUs have sparked an AI boom, become a key part of modern supercomputers, and continue to drive advances in gaming and pro graphics.

Modern GPUs are great at handling computer graphics and image processing. Their extremely parallel structure makes them more valuable than general-purpose central processing units (CPUs) for algorithms that process huge blocks of data in parallel.  Multiple GPUs are utilised on supercomputers, on workstations to expedite processing multiple videos at once and 3D rendering, for VFX and for simulations, and in AI for training workloads. In contrast to a CPU, NVIDIA GPUs, for example, contain chips that have what are known as CUDA Cores, and each one of these cores is a tiny processor that can execute some code.


Custom Carrier Board Design Service

IoTGatewayDevice 1

Our custom carrier PCB design services are completed by our in-house CAD team based in Southampton, Hampshire – ensuring the quality of design you’d expect from a British PCB designer.

Regardless if your choice of COM/SOM module is X86 or ARM based – or even if your design stems from a developer platform such as Raspberry PiJetson, Beagle Bones, Arduino …etc, if your long-term vision lies in a COM/SOM module and custom carrier PCB  design for the product you want to bring to market, BVM will ensure your carrier PCB design meets your needs.


Intel Movidius: Vision Processing Unit (VPU)

AIoT - Intel Movidius: Vision Processing Unit (VPU)
movidius icons

A vision processing unit (VPU) is a rising class of microprocessor, and a particular type of AI accelerator intended to quicken machine vision tasks. The vision processing unit is reported as more fitting for performing various kinds of machine vision algorithms. These tools may be designed with particular resources for capturing visual data from cameras, and are built for parallel processing. Some of these tools are low power and high performance and may be plugged into interfaces that enable programmable use. 

Vision processing units are fit for performing machine vision algorithms such as CNN (convolutional neural networks), SIFT (Scale-invariant feature transform) and other similar ones. They may include direct interfaces to take data from cameras (bypassing any off-chip buffers) and have a greater emphasis on on-chip data flow between many parallel execution units. 

Mustang V100

Field-Programmable Gate Array (FGPA)

AIoT - Field-Programmable Gate Array (FGPA)
fgpa icons

A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit (IC) made to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturing, which is why it is called “field-programmable”.  FPGAs include a range of programmable logic blocks and a hierarchy of “reconfigurable interconnects” that enable the blocks to be connected together like many logic gates that can be inter-wired in various configurations. 

FPGAs can be beneficial over GPUs in terms of interface flexibility and enhanced by the integration of programmable logic with CPUs and standard peripherals. GPUs, on the contrary, are optimised for parallel processing of floating-point operations utilising thousands of small cores. They also provide big processing capabilities with larger power efficiency. FPGAs, which can do a wide range of logical functions simultaneously, are being considered unsuitable for emerging technologies such as self-driving cars or deep learning applications. 

Mustang F100
The Power of GPUs

The Power of GPUs: Unleashing High-Performance Industrial Computing

We explore the fascinating world of GPUs, starting with a look at what a GPU is and the different types available. From scientific simulations to artificial intelligence and data analysis, GPUs are revolutionizing high-performance computing across various industries.

Exploring Different Types of CPUs

Exploring Different Types of CPUs: A Comprehensive Guide

CPUs come in various types, each designed to meet specific needs and applications.

In this article, we will explore the different types of CPUs and their respective roles in computing.

Accelerating Artificial Intelligence

Accelerating Artificial Intelligence: An Overview of AI Accelerators

AI accelerators are dedicated processors designed specifically to accelerate AI-related computations, enabling faster and more efficient execution of AI algorithms. Let’s explore the different types of AI accelerators and their unique characteristics.

AIoT Ready Hardware

Like most applications that BVM meet, where IoT based projects are concerned – each application demand will differ from the next. So we can meet these differing needs, and through the support of our OEM partner channel, BVM have built (and continue to expand) a portfolio of product to scale for computing efficiencies required around both Edge based PC’s – and Edge servers to provide for reliable performance solutions.

All our solutions are provided on industrial lifetime availability programs  – so on a minimum of 3-5 years

Edge Servers – High Performance Computers

Edge AI computing - Edge Servers / Powerful PCs + I/O

BVM’s edge servers put you in control of the industrial IoT solutions you’re looking to develop and deploy – allowing your application to constantly analyse right where the data is being produced.

With our edge servers, processing, information delivery, storage and IoT management can be completed ‘in situ’ saving you computational time, reducing bandwidth costs and improving latency.

AIoT Edge Devices – Low Powered, High Performance Computers

Edge AI computing - IoT Edge Devices / Low powered, High Performance systems + I/O

Our solutions can help with applications such condition monitoring of multiple devices for the purpose of predictive maintenance or anomaly detection in communications networks.

BVM supply systems with powerful and capable CPU’s providing processing engines that can handle several applications simultaneously.
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IoT Controllers – Low Powered,
Ultra Compact Computers

Edge AI computing - IoT Gateways - Low Powered Computers

Essentially, Industrial IoT gateways serve as computers that allow devices and sensors to communicate with one another, as well as communicate information to the cloud. However, IoT gateways are capable of so much more in terms of processing, memory, and storage capacity in close proximity to sensory data – and BVM have a wide ranging portfolio of gateway products to cover a multitude of computing needs.
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Deep Learning Computers

Edge AI computing - Deep Learning Computers

Whilst GPU-accelerated hardware is a central point of deep learning and AI, it is worth understanding that the hardware requirements vary significantly depending on which stage the of the AI journey you are at – Development, Training or Inferencing. Each has very different needs and BVM recognises this by offering a range of solutions within each area to ensure every price range and performance requirement is met.

AI Accelerator Cards

Edge AI computing - Accelerator cards (IEI Mustang cards)

BVM provide a wide range of Industrial AI accelerator cards solutions for machine vision, learning and AI applications requiring additional processing power whilst maintaining a ruggedized design. These systems typically integrate either a VPU (Vision Processing Unit), FGPA ( Field-Programmable Gate Array) or GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and still retain the option where you can maintain a rugged design.

Motherboards and SBCs

Edge AI computing - Motherboards and SBCs

Small Form Factor Industrial and Embedded Motherboards and SBCs. Industrial Grade Motherboards provide the backbone for Industrial PC Systems, they are revision controlled and are available for a longer time scale compared to commercial motherboard’s and typically operate over a wider temperature range than their commercial equivalents.
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GPU/VPU Accelerated Computers

Edge AI computing - GPU Acscelerated Computers

BVM provide a wide range of Industrial GPU accelerated solutions for machine vision, learning and AI applications requiring additional processing power whilst maintaining a ruggedized design.

These systems typically integrate either a VPU (Vision Processing Unit) or GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) and still retain the option where you can maintain a fanless design.

AI Ready Panel PCs

Edge AI computing - AI Panel PCs

AI-powered imaging applications require a suite of enabling technologies. First and foremost, processors equipped with HD graphics features and hardware-accelerated video encoding/decoding are a must. These capabilities are available on a selection of our Panel PC compute devices that are equipped with Intel Core processors. Deployments already exist in a wide array of industries including medical imaging, industrial automation and transportation.

AI Development Kit

Edge AI computing - AI Dev Kit

BVM provide starter kits to allow users to unleash the power of modern artificial intelligence solutions  to allow the development of understanding and skills around visual processing units (VPU) and dedicated hardware accelerators for running on-device deep neural network applications.  We’re also here to support you where a guiding hand is needed.
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BVM Design and Manufacturing Services

When a standard embedded design won’t suffice for what you need,
you can always turn to BVM for help and use our custom design and manufacturing services

Our custom designs are implemented against an ISO 9001-2015 quality management system. Important aspects to the design’s potential – such as power delivery, thermal management, vibration & shock and EMC (for the application of any necessary certifications) are all accounted for at the early stages of a product’s design.

And pivotal to everything we design is the products ability to be efficiently manufactured on a repeatable basis.

Design | Develop | Test | Manufacture

Here’s a selection of our design, manufacturing & associated services: –

Design to Order Banner
Build to Order Banner
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Design to Order: OEM/ODM Embedded Product Design Services

For customers designing a brand-new product from scratch
or working with an existing prototype.

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Build to Order: System Integration and Customisation Services​

Take an existing system and we can:

Build to order Racks and Towers, Peli Case PCs and Mini-ITX PCs

Embedded Software Services

Porting, Integration & Deployment

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We like to make life easier ….

Our technical & commercial team members will always provide you with valuable but impartial advice around the products and services that BVM supplies. With their collective backgrounds, they’ll provide you with the benefit of their knowledge and experiences when & where you need it. We’ll always help you in the first instance and get back to you when additional information is required.

You can either call us directly on +(0) 1489 780 144 and talk to one of the team – or E-mail us at sales@bvmltd.co.uk – or use the contact form on our website

BVM Design and Manufacturing Services: The manufacturer behind the solutions you know

When a standard embedded design won’t suffice for what you need, you can always turn to BVM for help and use our custom design and manufacturing services.