The Robotic Development Kit will be priced at $249 and the preorder is now available. The depth-sensing camera, Intel RealSense R200, can recognize items and determine the size, shape and contours of an object.

This development kit supports Linux for the first time and provides API’s which interface with ROS (Robotics Operating System) in a cross platform. Creating an intelligent robot has never been so easy and affordable.

The UP board was selected to be a part of the development kit because of a wide range of operating systems support, such as Linux (Ubilinux, Ubuntu, Yocto), Android and Microsoft Windows. Due to the versatility of its 40 pin I/O connector, it is compatible with some of the existing Raspberry Pi2 expansions.

UP Bridge The Gap Founder Fabrizio Del Maffeo said: “The cooperation with Intel RealSense for the Robotic Development Kit is a milestone for UP. This is just more proof that the market strongly believes that the UP board is the perfect solution for professional makers in the industrial and robotics field. RealSense gives robots a real sight!”

In the interim, the UP team is working on validating industrial field bus protocols such as CAN bus, EtherCAT and Profinet generally used to communicate with industrial robots and industrial machineries.