Fit PC: The Hand-sized Desktop PC for Embedded Robotics

From Raspeberry Pi to Chip PC and now Fit PC. Yes, it’s another tiny, hand-sized desktop computer. This thing boasts its green design as well at 7-Watts average power consumption, which is twice the greener Chip PC. It’s not as small and gamer friendly (remember the Quake 3 demo) as the Raspberry Pi but it can do things like controlling a hexapod. It’s the black box taped at the rear of the robot…cool!

There are several models of the Fit PC. There’s one that runs 2-GHz, 2-GB RAM, 250-GB hard disk and pre-loaded with Windows 7 Pro. And there’s a stripped down version named, Fit PC Value running 1.1-GHz, 1-GB RAM, attach your own hard disk and install your own OS. The downside is that the price ranges from US$279 to US$707 with the Value being the cheapest and the Win7 Pro as the most expensive. This one costs like a normal PC just made smaller to fit in the hood of a robot much like a beagle board. The difference though is that it’s a stand-alone personal computer when the robot demo is all over. 😀

Hmm, still haven’t blogged on the plug computers so that’s on the list and then we’ll check the Android SDK for robotics support too. Soon we’ll be able to study which platform is best for what application. That’s where we’re heading.