This New Spatial Camera Is Perfect for Robots

Giving a robot sight is not a trivial task. A USB webcam might be enough for basic computer vision, but that flat 2D picture is not enough for tasks that rely on depth perception, like navigation. For that, you’ll want a spatial camera and the new LooperRobotics Insight 9 looks to have a lot going for it.

LooperRobotics markets the Insight 9 as “the world’s 1stautonomous spatial AI camera.” That feels hyperbolic, as there are definitely already depth cameras for spatial computing that can integrate AI for autonomous navigation. But the Insight 9 does do all of its magic on the edge with its powerful D-Robotics RDK X5 brain. That frees up your robot’s processor to do everything else.

The Insight 9 has native ROS integration and is “plug & play” as a network node. Nothing is truly plug and play in ROS, but this seems to be as close as you can get. In a demo video, LooperRobotics shows the Insight 9 working in Foxglove within just a few minutes. Of course, actually making use of that for your robotics application is still entirely on you.

On the hardware side, the Insight 9 is impressive. It has three “eyes” (camera sensors) for depth and 2D HD imaging in the nice aluminum enclosure. A six-axis BMI088 IMU lets it accurately determine its own orientation. The D-Robotics RDK X5 has the Sunrise 5 “intelligent computing chip” that offers up to 10 TOPS performance. And though the actual weight isn’t specified, it is shown on midsize drones.

For most potential buyers, the Insight 9 will be competing against the now extensive line of RealSense depth cameras. But if we take the marketing claims at face value, the Insight 9 is a very strong contender when it comes to both price and capability.

Super Early Birds backing the Kickstarter campaign can get a LooperRobotics Insight 9 with some nice accessories for just $300. That puts it on par with the lower-end RealSense models in price, and the Insight 9 clearly beats those in capability — on paper, at least. The Kickstarter campaign runs until May 17th and rewards should ship in June.