MIPS Introduces Actus RISC-V Platform for Robotic Motion Control

MIPS has introduced advances in its Actus reference platform, an open, energy-efficient RISC-V architecture designed to combine real-time motor control, edge inference, and communications for robotics. Developed for compact robot joints, Actus addresses the requirements of humanoid and industrial robots, where precise movement must be achieved within strict space, weight, power, and thermal constraints.

The Actus reference platform integrates two MIPS Atlas M8500 real-time RISC-V microcontrollers with dedicated motor-control acceleration and edge-processing capabilities. The processors use hardware multithreading to avoid context-switching overhead during interrupt servicing. Dedicated trigonometric acceleration provides more than 16 times the performance of standard trigonometric libraries when executing field-oriented control algorithms. For motor control, Actus combines high-resolution PWM with 100-picosecond-class timing and sigma-delta ADCs to support precise operation of high-torque, high-current motors.

The platform also integrates edge intelligence through ARC VPX 512-bit vector processing. This enables sensor fusion and predictive maintenance models to run locally on the same chip that controls the motor, reducing the need to separate motion-control and inference functions across different devices.

Actus also provides deterministic communications between robot joints and central controllers. Its interfaces include gigabit Ethernet with three-port Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN), CAN-FD, and serial connectivity. These enable controllers to exchange position and torque data over a deterministic network and coordinate their operation. Functional-safety support and an integrated hardware security module with post-quantum cryptography provide additional capabilities for production robotics systems.

The platform is built on GlobalFoundries' energy-efficient FDX FD-SOI technology, incorporating AutoPro150 and on-chip MRAM. This manufacturing foundation supports low-power operation and integration while reducing board area and system cost in compact actuator designs.

Actus extends the MIPS Physical AI portfolio, which also includes Acies, an inference-native AI platform, and Aegis, a safety-native CPU platform. Together, the three technologies provide an architecture covering AI inference, safety-critical computing, deterministic communications, and physical actuation.

Developers can start software development on a virtual platform before silicon is available, then move to the Actus-1 evaluation board and software development kit for prototyping. Ecosystem partners, including Green Hills Software, support the software stack for safety-certified products.

MIPS is demonstrating Actus at electronica 2026 in Munich, Germany, November 10-13, at Hall C3, Booth 540. The company will also present a session on using RISC-V to accelerate real-time applications at the Embedded Developer Forum on November 12.

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