UGV Rover PT Jetson Orin AI kit

I2C, UART
TTL Serial Bus Servo Control Interface

Introduction

UGV Rover PT Jetson Orin, a 6-wheel 4WD AI robot, features a dual-controller structure. The ESP32 slave computer controls the motor PID, IMU sensors, OLED screen, servo, LED ON/OFF, and so on, which greatly reduces the IO resources for the host computer and provides high-performance communication interfaces. Also, the host controller adopts Jetson Orin Nano, offering advanced features such as high computational power and specified strategies.
It is high-strength and more durable as the robot's body is made of a 2mm thick aluminum alloy casing. In addition, it adopts soft and anti-slip rubber tires paired with four gear motors with encoders, functioning closed-loop speed control and reducing vibration. It enjoys a more excellent performance in movement with a maximum speed of 1.3m/s. With the built-in 3S lithium battery UPS power module, it offers robust and long-lasting motivation, supporting continuous use while charging to meet long-term development and usage requirements.
The Jetson Orin Nano paired with a USB camera provides users with a smooth visual experience through real-time footage with high frame rates and low latency. Users can enjoy capturing different wonderful moments through functions such as taking photos and recording videos. Additionally, various feedback information from the robot, including battery voltage and CPU usage, is displayed in real-time through a web application, allowing users to monitor the robot's status in real-time.
The robot's visual system is equipped with a 2DOF(degrees of freedom) high-torque flexible pan-tilt and a 160° ultra-wide-angle 5-megapixel camera, providing users with a wide field of view, flexible viewing angles, and various AI machine vision functions. The high-brightness LED spotlight next to the pan-tilt ensures clear visibility even in low-light environments. Additionally, the design with Picatinny rails allows users to easily expand more tactical accessories, further enhancing the robot's functionality.
To enable users to fully leverage the potential of this robot, we provide online documentation and tutorials, including a JupyterLab web application. Whether you're a beginner in robotics technology or an experienced developer, you can delve into learning, understanding, and creating step by step through these resources.

Features

High-performance Dual Controller: the slave computer is ESP32, responsible for precise motor PID control and multiple sensor readings; the host computer Jetson Orin Nano offers high computational power. The two-layer architecture makes the robot run more efficiently.
Open-source Code: The host controller is based on the latest version of the Raspberry Pi system (Debain Bookworm) development, WEB applications based on Flask, Python language, the software platform is all open source, easy for users to learn and secondary development.
Rich Tutorials: Offers rich JupyterLab, graphic and video tutorials covering various functionalities to help users quickly get started and use the robot, thereby accelerating the realization of innovative applications.
Wide Viewing Angle: Equipped with a 2-degree-of-freedom, high-torque, flexible pan-tilt that provides a wide 360° viewing angle horizontally, and a 5-megapixel camera with a 160° wide-angle, it captures a wider range of images.
Robot Vision: Integrated with machine vision functions such as color, object and gesture recognition, face and motion detection, it can be extended for more applications.
Abundant Interaction: Real-time video streaming, digital zoom, photo, video, and other functions, and WEB application of real-time video functions and robot information displayed on the screen to improve the user interaction experience.
Cross-platform Support: Supports cross-platform remote control without the need to install an app. You can follow tutorials to implement remote control beyond the local network using solutions such as Pgyer, Cpolar, LocalTunnel, and others.
Expandability: features a mounting plate and Picatinny rails, facilitating the attachment of additional tactical accessories. On the hardware side, there are spare interfaces available for LED lights, which can be used for expanding peripherals such as water guns. Additionally, the product can be expanded with 4G or 5G modules, enabling users to explore more possibilities.
Durable Structure: The 2mm thick aluminum alloy case provides outstanding structural strength and durability.
High-Performance Drive Motors: Equipped with four motors with encoders, enabling closed-loop speed control. With a maximum speed of 1.3m/s, it delivers robust power.
All-Drive and High-Quality Tires: Featuring a four-wheel drive system paired with soft, non-slip rubber tires, ensuring excellent traction and stability on various terrains.
Long Battery Life: Utilizing a 3S lithium battery UPS power system, it supports continuous use while charging, ensuring long-lasting endurance.

Product Assembly

This assembly tutorial mainly includes two parts. The first is a tutorial on installing Raspberry Pi 4B/5 for ACCE model products, and the second is a tutorial for installing lithium batteries.
[Assembly tutorial for ugv]

User Guide

Notices

Please read the following content before using:

3x 18650 lithium batteries are required and need to be purchased separately to ensure normal operation, a battery with a high discharge rate is recommended. And a Jetson Orin Nano is required and needs to be purchased independently if you are using ACCE version.
When connecting the battery for the first time, pay attention to whether the LED light is on the battery module. If the LED light is on, it means that the positive and negative electrodes of the battery are connected inversely. If the battery is not connected inversely, the LED light will not be on. Do not charge the battery when it is reversed, otherwise it may cause an explosion.
This product can not suffer severe impact and is not waterproof.

First Time Use

The product with Jetson Orin Nano 4GB Kit is shipped with configured software, and you can directly use it after powering on.
After turning on the power switch, the product will be initialized, and the OLED screen will display a series of initialization contents; Jetson Orin Nano will automatically establish a hot spot during startup, and the IP address will be displayed on the OLED screen after the main program of the project automatically runs. The content displayed on the OLED screen after startup is completed is as follows:

The first line E: the IP address of the Ethernet port for remotely accessing the Jetson Orin Nano. "No Ethernet" means that the Jetson Orin Nano has no Ethernet cable connection.
The second line W: In AP mode, the robot will automatically establish a hotspot and display the default IP: 192.168.50.5. In STA mode, the robot will connect to the IP address assigned by the known WIFI; The IP address displayed can be used to wirelessly connect to the Jetson Orin Nano.
The third line F/J: Network port number, "5000" is used to access the main program control page of the product, "8888" is used to access the JupyterLab page.
The fourth line AP: means the WIFI is in AP mode, and the time means the usage period of the robot, the value in dBm represents the signal strength RSSI of WIFI in STA mode.

You can use a mobile phone or PC to access this hotspot automatically created by the product, the name of the hotspot is AccessPopup, and the password of the hotspot is 1234567890. After connecting, open the browser, enter the default IP address of the device in AP mode (the address will be displayed at line W on the OLED screen), that is, enter 192.168.50.5:5000 in the URL bar to access the control interface of the main demo of the product.

Joystick Usage

This joystick requires the use of a PC browser together with the Jetson Orin server. Please follow the steps below:
In the PC browser, access the Jetson Orin IP address:5000, and ensure that the page remains active at all times (do not close, refresh, or allow the browser tab to go to sleep).
The wireless receiver of the joystick must be connected to the USB port of the PC, not the Jetson Orin.

Network Configuration

When configuring WIFI for the first time, you need to prepare a network cable or a USB cable, and a computer when using a USB cable.
Open the terminal and operate it as shown below:

Network cable: after booting the product, connect the network cable and then the OLED screen will automatically display the IP of the network cable. The IP after "E" is the wired IP; E represents "eth0". Enter this IP address: 8888 on the browser; open jupyterLa and then the Terminal.
USB cable: The Micro USB port of the Jetson Orin Nano is the default IP address "192.168.55.1". If you do not have a screen, you can remotely control Jetson Orin Nano through SSH.
- After booting the product, connect the Micro USB port of the Jetson Orin Nano to the PC with a USB cable.
- Remotely login to Jetson Orin Nano with the SSH IP "192.168.55.1" through Putty or MobaXteram software.
- The default username and password of Jetson Orin Nano is "jetson".

After logging into the terminal and configuring the WIFI connection to a known hotspot for the first time, you need to close the AccessPopup recurring scanning task that is running in the background, and browse to the AccessPopup folder first.

cd ugv_jetson/AccessPopup/

Run AccessPopup configuration scrip:

sudo chmod +x installconfig.sh
sudo ./installconfig.sh

Type 7, enter, and uninstall AccessPopup. (When it connects to a known WIFI, and then you need the Jetson to automatically set up the hotspot again you can perform a similar step, but choose 1 to install AccessPopup, and then it will automatically set up the hotspot when you turn it on.)
Wait for the uninstallation to complete, press any key to exit, then enter 9, enter to exit AccessPopup.
Make sure WIFI is on:

sudo nmcli r wifi on

Lists the known WIFI networks around you:

sudo nmcli d wifi list

Connect to the known WIFI:

sudo nmcli d wifi connect <my_wifi_ssid> password <my_wifi_password>

You need to replace the above <my_wifi_ssid> and <my_wifi_password> with your own hotspot name and password depending on your situation, e.g. sudo nmcli d wifi connect wifi_name password 1234567890

Product Tutorial

Product Initialization

Product Firmware Update

We provide an ESP32 download tool for the UGV Rover. Using this tool, users can quickly update the firmware or restore the factory program.

1. First, connect the robot to your computer using a USB cable. (This step requires opening the robot to access the USB interface in the middle of the driver board).

2. Download the ESP32 download tool for UGV Rover: UGV Rover ESP32 Download Tool. After downloading, unzip it and double‑click to open the "flash_download_tool_3.9.5.exe" program. After opening, two windows will pop up, we need to operate the UI interface of the download tool, and the other window will act as a terminal to show the working status of the download tool.

3. In the "DOWNLOAD TOOL MODE" interface, select ChipType as ESP32 and WorkMode as Factory. When using Factory, the binary file will be called using a relative path, so the user does not need to manually input the binary file path. After selecting, click OK.

4. In this software interface, keep the "LockSettings" checkbox selected, with the right side indicating that programs can be uploaded to 8 UGV Rover units simultaneously. Click "COM", and select the new COM (the new COM here is COM28); BAUD is used to set the download speed, the higher the value, the faster the speed, and it can be up to 921600 for ESP32.

5. After selection, click "START" to start uploading the program. Once the upload is complete, "IDLE WAIT" will change to "FINISH COMPLETE". After completion, you can disconnect the USB connection between the driver board and the computer, turn on the switch of the robot product, and control the robot after powering on.

Host PC Initialization

Note: This part is not mandatory. It is only necessary to reinstall the system on the product when you need to restore the host PC to the factory system or when the product has undergone a software update.

Host PC initialization consists of two steps. The first step is to flash the Ubuntu 22.04 system onto the carrier board. The second step is to install and configure the software programs. If your product came with a Jetson Orin Nano board pre‑installed from the factory, you can skip the first step and proceed directly to the second step. If you are using your own Jetson Orin Nano board and are unsure about the system version on the carrier board, start with the first step.

1. Carrier Board System Installation

To flash the system onto the Jetson Orin Nano carrier board, you will need a host computer or virtual machine running Ubuntu 22.04. You need to have Ubuntu 22.04 installed on your computer, either as the main operating system or on a virtual machine.

Required Components

UGV Rover PT Jetson Orin AI Kit product
Ubuntu 22.04 virtual machine or host system
Yellow jumper cap (included in the product accessory kit)
USB data cable (included in the product accessory kit)

Hardware Configuration (Entering Recovery Mode)

Use a jumper cap or Dupont wire to short the FC REC and GND pins, as shown in the figure above (located under the carrier board).
Turn on the product power switch.
Connect the Jetson board's Type‑C port to your Ubuntu 22.04 host or virtual machine using a USB cable (ensure it is a data cable).

Software Configuration

Open your Ubuntu 22.04 system, launch a browser, and download SDK Manager.
After downloading, we enter the download path to install, and input the following content on the terminal:

cd Downloads
sudo dpkg -i sdkmanager_1.6.1-8175_amd64.deb (Enter according to your version)

After installation, the system may report missing dependency files. Resolve this by running:

sudo apt --fix-broken install

Launch SDK Manager in Ubuntu 22.04.
Click LOGIN to log in with your NVIDIA account. A browser link will pop up. If you do not have an account, register first, then log in.
You have now successfully logged into SDK Manager.

System Installation

Open a terminal in Ubuntu 22.04, run SDK Manager, and log in.
If the Jetson board is detected correctly, it will appear as shown below. If no device appears after connection, click "refresh".

Select Jetson Orin Nano as the board type. Choose either the 8GB or 4GB version based on your actual hardware. (If you are using the official kit, select Developer Kit.) Uncheck Host Machine.
In the JetPack options, select the latest supported system. Do not check any other SDKs, then click Continue.

Select Jetson Linux, uncheck both Jetson Runtime Components and Jetson SDK Components, and check the first license agreement at the bottom.

If this is your first time using SDK Manager to flash the system, clicking Continue will bring up a pop‑up window. Click Create to begin flashing. If you have used SDK Manager for flashing before, simply click Continue and wait for the flashing process to start.

Finally, click Continue and wait for the system flashing to complete. During the flashing process, a pop‑up window will appear before the "Installing" progress bar reaches 50%.
1. The board type will be selected by default. Make sure you selected the correct board type in the previous step.
2. Under OEM Configuration, select Pre‑Config, enter a username and password (you can define your own), and the system will be automatically configured during the boot process.

UGV Rover Jetson Orin Configuration1.png

After flashing is complete, you will see the screen shown below. Next, proceed with the software program installation for this product.

Orin Nano Installation Completed Successfully.png

2. Software Program Installation

There are two ways to install the software programs for this product. One is to directly flash the system image with pre‑configured software onto the Jetson Orin Nano's storage. This method requires no additional configuration from the user; after flashing, you can simply install it onto the product and start using it. The other method is to configure the software manually.

Required Components

Remove the Jetson Orin Nano storage drive from the product.
Drive/flash programmer
PC computer

Preparing the System Image

Download the image to be flashed from the following link: UGV_Rover_PT_Jetson_Orin Image.

Resource

2D Drawing

2D Drawing

STEP Model

STEP Model

Schematic

Driver Board Schematic

Open-source Demo

Software

ESP32 Download Tool

UGV Rover ESP32 Download Tool

Support

Technical Support

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Navigation menu

UGV Rover PT Jetson Orin AI kit

Contents

Introduction

Features

Product Assembly

User Guide

Notices

First Time Use

Joystick Usage

Network Configuration

Product Tutorial

Product Initialization

Product Firmware Update

Host PC Initialization

1. Carrier Board System Installation

Required Components

Hardware Configuration (Entering Recovery Mode)

Software Configuration

System Installation

2. Software Program Installation

Required Components

Preparing the System Image

Resource

2D Drawing

STEP Model

Schematic

Open-source Demo

Software

ESP32 Download Tool

Support