Crazyflie AI-deck (GAP8 RISC-V MCU & ESP32 Wi-Fi)

Crazyflie AI-deck is built around the GAP8 RISC-V multi-core MCU build for AI on the edge purposes. With the GAP8 IoT application processor and the ULP camera, the Crazyflie is able to capture, analyze, and classify its environment. This lightweight and low-power combination opens up many research and development areas for the micro-sized Crazyflie 2.X UAV.

GAP8 delivers over 10 GOPS of computing power at exceptionally low power consumption enabling complex tasks such as path-finding and target following on the Crazyflie, consuming less than 0,1% of the total energy

The AI-deck extends the computational capabilities and will enable complex artificial intelligence-based workloads like Convolutional Neural Networks to run onboard, with the possibility to achieve fully autonomous navigation capabilities. The ESP32 adds WiFi connectivity with the possibility to stream images as well as handling control.

Specifications

• Power supply 3V-5V @ VCOM up to 300mA
• 1-wire memory for automatic expansion board detection
• UART connected between GAP8 and Crazyflie (RX1, TX1)
• UART connected between ESP32 (RX2, TX2)
• ESP32 sysboot pin connected to Crazyflie (IO_1)
• Reset to GAP8 and ESP32 connected to Crazyflie (IO_4)
• SPI between GAP8 and ESP32
• GAP8 (B1) -> ESP32 (GPIO_5) io
• ESP32 (GPIO_25) -> GAP8 (A13) io
• Weight: 4.4g
• Size (WxHxD): 30x52x8mm

Resources

• GitHub code and documentation
• Datasheet
• Schematics
• GAP8 Manual