Zhuhai Amicro Semiconductor will receive nearly 10 million yuan ($1.4 million) from the Ministry of Science & Technology (MOST) to lead in the production of chip and hardware/software modules for robot environment modeling, navigation, and positioning.

Jiang Xinqiao, founder of Amicro Semiconductor, says the domestic mobile robot sector lacks dedicated chips for mapping, positioning, and navigation equipped with high computing power, instantaneity, and low power consumption. Budgeted at 50-million-yuan (7-million), this latest project aims to break the bottleneck in the coordinated design and R&D of robot chip software and hardware.

The goal also is to grasp key generic technology in robot sensing and motion control, and increase the industrialization and global competitiveness of China-made robots.

Amicro control chips for gyroscope, laser, and visual navigation [Photo courtesy amicro.com.cn]

Amicro Semiconductor is working with Zhuhai UM Science & Technology Research Institute, Huazhong and Wuhan universities of Science & Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Soochow and Shanghai universities, Shanghai Robot Industrial Technology Research Institute, Xiangcheng Robotics & Intelligent Equipment of Soochow University, and Leador Spatial Information Technology.

Li Deren of the Chinese academies of Sciences and Engineering; Qu Hejian and Li Jinchang with MOST High-Tech Research & Development Center; Zeng Hao, deputy head of Industry-University-Research Integration Division of the Department of Science & Technology of Guangdong Province; Zhao Jie, professor of Harbin Institute of Technology; Chen Diansheng, professor of Beihang University; and Qu Weixin, head of the Working Group on International Standards for Household Service Robots of International Electrotechnical Commission attended the project launch ceremony and contributed advice to the implementation plan on May 22.

Founded in 2014, Xiangzhou-based Amicro (Yiwei) Semiconductor on Hongshan Road is the largest household service robot motion control algorithm and chip provider in the country. Products are mainly used in robots, unmanned driving, industrial vehicles, commercial robots, AR / VR, security monitoring and other fields. The company has applied for 567 intellectual property rights. Its self-developed chips, which support inertial, laser, and visual navigation, have been adopted by Karcher of Germany, Anker, and Xiaomi. Company revenue exceeded 100 million yuan ($14 million) in 2019.

In addition, Amicro Semiconductor received Pre-A financing of almost 100 million yuan from Delta Capital, Hengtong Group, and Hengqin Angel Investment Fund in June 2018. Xiaomi Technology and Beijing Integrated Circuit Advanced Manufacturing and High-End Equipment Equity Fund provided millions of yuan last October.

The company is also among the first selected by the Zhuhai Science & Technology Innovation Bureau into the Unicorn Cultivation Repository.