Skip to content

Single Board Computer (SBC) Unit

The Single Board Computer (SBC) serves as the central computing unit of the modified Hangfa Discovery Q2 platform. This computing unit is responsible for communicating with the microcontroller via a serial port connection, executing Robot Operating System (ROS)-based nodes, and interfacing with external systems.

While Raspberry Pi SBCs could have been a more cost-effective alternative to x86-based boards, they often face compatibility issues with certain libraries due to their ARM architecture - a limitation shared with Jetson boards. Additionally, Raspberry Pi boards may lack the necessary processing power for multimodal perception applications, even when only recording data.

As a result, we opted for LattePanda SBCs, specifically, the LattePanda 3 Delta (used in our experiments) and LattePanda Sigma (a more powerful alternative) boards. This guide provides detailed, step-by-step instructions for intermediate and advance on how to:

  • Set up the SBCs (BIOS settings, power, storage, and display configuration)
  • Install the operating system (Ubuntu Focal Fossa 20.04 LTS)
  • Install and configure the ROS framework (ROS 1 Noetic Ninjemys and ROS 2 Foxy Fitzroy)
  • Configure remote desktop access
  • Set up the development environment
  • Firmware setup in terms of udev rules for peripheral management, and installation and configuration of the advanced serial monitor application CoolTerm

Following these step-by-step instructions will ensure that you are capable of replicating our configuration in terms of computing unit, while may also give you additional ideas on how to improve it even further.