(Twizy) Research Hardware replacement

dtonda8 commented 4 days ago

I am not exactly sure of our budget (yet), but I'd aim for no more than $1500 for now.

Alienware Laptop

Motive: mediocre performance running the Camera Stream (20 fps on RViz). Imagine what would happen if we ran the entire Autoware program
Autoware's Minimum Hardware Requirements (16GB ram, 4 GB Nvidia GPU, 8-core CPU)
Recommended Rviz specs (32GB ram) Ideally, it should not consume much power from Twizy's battery, and even better if it doesn't need to use any power at all (e.g., laptops).
[ ] Research the costs of RAM and CPU upgrades on Alienware laptop
[ ] General research for entire laptop replacement that satisfies the requirements above

Drive PX 2

Motive: AFAIK, can only use ROS 1 while still having the Nvidia driveworks packages to run gmsl cameras. A replacement is not needed if our primary computer can run a streamer.
GMSL-USB converters do exist but are rare & expensive
[ ] Research potential PX 2 replacements that can support GMSL cameras

Or, scale horizontally (keep our setup and add more hardware):

e.g. one laptop for sensors management, px 2 for cameras, keep Alienware to run Autoware
This is free since we already have unused laptops/desktops in the workshop
[x] Get specs and post on this issue any unused laptops/PCs and their specs (david)

dtonda8 commented 3 days ago

Hi all! Add your name to the tasks you want to do (edit the post above then add (<your-name>) beside any task - [ ]). This should be chill, we should aim to finish this research within the next 7 days and add any useful things to this GitHub issue.

amrsnch commented 2 days ago

Yo, I was wondering if we can go with a refurbished machine to save some money. Also, considering that it's going to be stored in the back of the Twizy and not used directly, it kind of makes sense. However, it also depends on the budget we have to spend, lol. If we can afford a new machine, we can go with that as well. A PC is also under consideration.

amrsnch commented 2 days ago

Also, I've got a recommendation regarding Raspberry alternatives. You can check them out here: https://www.khadas.com/vim4

dtonda8 commented 2 days ago

Yo, I was wondering if we can go with a refurbished machine to save some money. Also, considering that it's going to be stored in the back of the Twizy and not used directly, it kind of makes sense.

Yep, definitely. It could even have a broken screen since it would still be usable via Anydesk or ssh

However, it also depends on the budget we have to spend, lol. If we can afford a new machine, we can go with that as well. A PC is also under consideration.

Pros of PC: cheap and easier to upgrade. Cons: constant battery consumption and size.

Also, I've got a recommendation regarding Raspberry alternatives. You can check them out here: https://www.khadas.com/vim4

This seems pretty interesting. We could have one these to solely manage the lidar or cameras. I'll think about this for a bit. Good find!

dtonda8 commented 4 hours ago

The fyp teams have several Raspberry Pis

And there is a 16GB RAM laptop with Ubuntu, now in G03

Monash-Connected-Autonomous-Vehicle / autoware