NexAIoT Pops a Kneron KL730 NPU Into Its Next-Gen Nex-MOV2 Autonomous Mobile Robot

NexAIoT is showing off its second-generation autonomous mobile robot (AMR) platform, the NexMOV-2, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas this week — now featuring an on-board Kneron KL730 neural processing unit for on-device artificial intelligence workloads.

"CES provides the perfect platform to unveil NexMOV-2 and share our vision for the future of autonomous mobile robotics," claims NexAIoT's chief technology officer Hoe Seng Ooi of the company's latest wheeled robot design. "The NexMOV-2 reflects our clear commitment to continuous innovation and collaboration with our partners. Through this solution, we are able to address the growing demand."

The Nex-MOV2 is, as the name suggests, a successor to NexAIoT's earlier Nex-MOV platform, but now featuring Kneron's KL730 neural processing unit on-board. This, launched back in 2023, is an automotive-grade chip that delivers a claimed 3.6 "effective" tera-operations per second (eTOPS) of INT8 precision or 7.2 eTOPS at of INT4 precision compute alongside an integrated image signal processor — good enough, the company claimed at launch, for everything from sensor fusion to lightweight large language models (LLMs) like nanoGPT.

In the Nex-MOV2, the chip is used to run on-device artificial intelligence models for obstacle avoidance and sensor fusion targeting simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) tasks — all running from the robot's integrated cameras, designed to deliver a 3D view of the machine's surroundings without the need for lidar sensors. The Nex-MOV2's controller, meanwhile, can also accept a choice of NVIDIA Jetson SODIMM-format or Intel SMARC-format systems-on-modules.

The Nex-MOV2 is being showcased at CES this week, at the event's North Hall Booth #9071; pricing has yet to be announced. More information on NexAIoT is available on the company's website.