BlackBerry QNX Academy
For Functional Safety

A Free Introductory Safety Course from BlackBerry QNX and Texas Instruments

Accelerate Your Innovation, Reduce Risk

The BlackBerry® QNX® Academy for Functional Safety provides your developers the self-paced training they need to fast-track software innovation efforts and reduce the risk in the development process of safety-critical products like industrial robots and AI vision systems. The training becomes even more meaningful when complemented with the hands-on training tools using the powerful TDA4VM Edge AI hardware from Texas Instruments and the extended 90-day evaluation licenses of the QNX® software, which includes the QNX® Software Development Platform (QNX SDP), the QNX® Operating System for Safety (QNX OS for Safety), and the QNX® Hypervisor for Safety. The demonstration software provides out-of-the-box support for camera, Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), and LiDAR sensors so your teams can get started sooner on robotics projects that require safety, security, reliability, and standards conformance.

BlackBerry QNX created all content of the BlackBerry QNX Academy for Functional Safety. The content is intended for educational use only. You are responsible for the safety and quality of your products. BlackBerry and Texas Instruments cannot be held responsible for the safety or quality of any products created using the content of the BlackBerry QNX Academy for Functional Safety.



Starter Kits to Build a Moving Robot

...

Step-by-step guide to build a robot

Build your own DIY robot with community hardware and the QNX safety-certified OS.

Main hardware:

  • Texas Instruments TDA4VM starter kit
  • SCUTTLE™ v2.3 chassis kit

QNX evaluation licenses:

  • QNX SDP 7.1
  • QNX OS for Safety 2.2
  • QNX Hypervisor for Safety 2.2

BlackBerry QNX Functional Safety

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Create a company safety culture

With the BlackBerry QNX Academy for Functional Safety, you’ll have access to materials from the world’s foremost functional safety experts.

You’ll learn:

  • how to create a safety culture
  • fundamental safety terminology
  • how to prepare and structure a safety case
  • how to minimize faults, errors, and failures
  • considerations for ensuring safety after deployment

Robot Demos

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Deep learning and autonomous mobile robots

Detailed code to learn and follow along!

With the TI hardware and the QNX software, you can do the following demos:

  • object detection and ranging
  • subject follower
  • LiDAR-based navigation

Curated Tools and Training

The BlackBerry QNX Academy for Functional Safety is complemented by the TDA4VM Edge AI starter kit from Texas Instruments and the extended 90-day evaluation licenses of the QNX software components. Along with these powerful tools, this Academy covers the basics of functional safety as it applies to embedded system design and can be customized to focus on specific industry standards.

TI TDA4VM Starter Kit

Bring smart cameras, robots and intelligent machines to life with the TDA4VM processor starter kit. With a fast setup process and an assortment of foundational demos and tutorials, you can start prototyping a vision-based application in less than an hour. The kit enables 8 trillion operations per second (TOPS) of deep learning performance and hardware-accelerated Edge AI processing without any hand-tooling. You can unleash high-speed AI in your embedded application only using Linux and industry standard APIs (TensorFlow Lite, ONNX Runtime, TVM, GStreamer, Docker, ROS, OpenGL ES).

Order your TDA4VM processor starter kit now.

QNX Software Development Platform

The QNX SDP is a comprehensive software platform for mission-critical embedded systems and their long lifecycles. It includes the latest QNX® Neutrino® Real-Time Operating System (RTOS), the QNX® Momentics® Tool Suite and the QNX Software Center to provide a full-featured, microkernel RTOS for ARM® and x86 platforms. It also includes two networking stacks: a standard networking to support basic networking requirements and a high-performance networking stack to support the complex networking requirements that are demanded by high-performance computing platforms. Its comprehensive POSIX-compliant development environment will be familiar to anyone who’s worked with Linux®. The QNX SDP 7.1 key capabilities include improved POSIX compliance and support for the GCC 8.3 toolchain, support for the new QNX screen features, improved GPU accelerated graphics support, and new security features and improvements such as fortified system functions and a new QNX cryptography library.

Learn the details about the QNX real-time operating system and development tools for critical embedded systems.

QNX Operating System for Safety

Ideal for building complex safe systems, the QNX OS for Safety is a full-featured, RTOS designed for use in every sector where reliable, functionally safe embedded software is critical: medical devices, industrial controls, aerospace, automotive, power generation, robotics and rail transportation. It's provided with the safety certificates and documentation you need to correctly develop and certify your safety-critical software systems

Learn more about the QNX embedded OS, pre-certified to ISO 26262 ASIL D, IEC 61508 SIL3, and IEC 62304 Class C.

QNX Hypervisor for Safety

The QNX Hypervisor for Safety is the safety-certified variant of the QNX® Hypervisor. Pre-certified by TÜV Rheinland to ISO 26262 ASIL D, IEC 61508 SIL3 and IEC 62304 Class C, it offers simpler and faster certification of your automotive, industrial and medical mission-critical systems. With non-safety OSs (Android™, Linux) contained in the QNX Hypervisor for Safety virtual machines, you can focus your certification efforts and funds on certifying only your safety-critical components.

Find out how to consolidate mixed-criticality operating systems with the QNX Hypervisor solution.

BlackBerry QNX Functional Safety Basics

Using pre-certified software is just one of the ten principles for building safe embedded software systems. Fundamental safety concepts curated for this Academy will enhance your company’s strengths in functional safety for embedded systems, covering company safety culture, safety terminlogy, and the safety case. Through training videos, QNX safety expert Chris Hobbs explains practical methods and techniques for reducing risk in your safety-critical system.

To go beyond the safety training of the BlackBerry QNX Academy for Functional Safety, QNX provides additional safety training and workshops.



Getting Started

To perform the demos in this Academy, you will need to obtain the evaluation licenses for the QNX software and purchase the Texas Instrument evaluation starter kit.

Follow these steps to access your 90-day evaluation licenses for the QNX SDP 7.1, the QNX OS for Safety 2.2, and the QNX Hypervisor for Safety 2.2.

Step 1: Log into your myQNX account and GitLab account
If you are new to QNX and do not have an account, please create a myQNX account and a GitLab account.
Make sure to use the same email for both of your myQNX and GitLab accounts.

Step 2: Submit the QNX evaluation license request form
Go to the BlackBerry QNX Academy for Functional Safety landing page. Follow the instructions to fill the QNX evaluation license request form. Please allow up to two business days for the receipt of your evaluation license keys.
*End user license terms and conditions apply. This 90-day evaluation is meant to be used in conjunction with the BlackBerry QNX Academy for Functional Safety only.

Step 3: Download the QNX software.
Using the QNX Software Center, download and install the QNX OS for Safety 2.2.1, which is covered by the QNX OS for Safety 2.2 licence and automatically installs the QNX SDP 7.1. Then install the QNX Hypervisor for Safety 2.2.

Now, start your training.


Hands-on Building

Building a Robot

Gather your robot parts and start assembling

Get started >

QNX Functional Safety

Learning

Developing and Maintaining a Safety Culture

Understand the importance of a company safety culture

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Learning

Preparing and Structuring the Safety Cases

Learn to prepare and structure your safety case

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Learning

Detecting and Minimizing your System's Faults, Errors, and Failures

Learn techniques to detect and remove faults, errors, and failures

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Robot Demos

Hands-on Coding

Object Detection and Ranging

Use integrated stereo depth estimation to detect objects in 3D

Get started >

Hands-on Coding

Subject Follower

Deep learning for object detection and steer around the object

Get started >

Hands-on Coding

LiDAR-based Navigation

Use LiDAR and video analytics for automated navigation

Get started >

References and Additional Readings


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