Cluster on Wheels

TL;DR

This paper introduces a compact 16-node AMD Ryzen cluster integrated into a robot for SLAM research, demonstrating its design, implementation, and performance in a robotics context.

Contribution

It presents the first use of a compact multi-node cluster in a robot for SLAM data collection, detailing hardware and software solutions.

Findings

Cluster performs well under stress tests

Compact size suitable for mobile robotics

Integrated power and networking components

Abstract

This paper presents a very compact 16-node cluster that is the core of a future robot for collecting and storing massive amounts of sensor data for research on Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that such a cluster is used in robotics. We first present the requirements and different options for computing of such a robot and then show the hardware and software of our solution in detail. The cluster consists of 16 nodes of AMD Ryzen 7 5700U CPUs with a total of 128 cores. As a system that is to be used on a Clearpath Husky robot, it is very small in size, can be operated from battery power and has all required power and networking components integrated. Stress tests on the completed cluster show that it performs well.