Full Jetson Nano Smart Rover Guide | From Pieces To Programming In 2 Hours!

ArduPilot is capable of running on many vehicle types, making your ArduPilot knowledge easily transferable to multiple vehicle types.

One VERY exciting vehicle type is ROVER. ArduRover is a very advanced flight control software on it's own that can run on the pixhawk. This is essentially a self driving rc car.

BUT... when you pair the power of ArduRover on the Pixhawk with....
A FREAKING JETSON NANO?!?!

Anything is possible.

AI? Check.
Computer Vision? Check.
Voice Control? Check.
Machine Learning? Check.

In this video, you'll learn:

1. How to build your very own smart rover from scratch
2. How to program your rover for autonomous missions
3. How to use python dronekit to control the rover through python scripting
4. How to stage missions on a simulated rover before going out to the real world
5. How to perform an autonomous rover delivery mission.

The rover we build in this video will be the EXACT same rover we use for future advanced projected (like openCV/computer vision, AI, voice control etc).

If this interests you, or you want to follow along with this video, we are offering these rover kits to you! Simply make one purchase and receive ALL of the parts in one box. We'll even pre-flash the pixhawk with tested firmware, pre-flash the Jetson Nano, download all the example scripts to the Jetson Nano, and a TON more.

This rover kit will save you a TON of time. Previously, the learning curve was months or years.

Now it is days.

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Pre-order your rover kit below and get $100 off and a free video zoom call to answer any questions!
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0:00 Skit
0:50 Introduction
6:09 Video Textbook
6:35 ArduRover Basics
13:01 Build Your Rover pt1
37:27 Build Your Rover pt2
55:09 Setting Up The Rover Firmware
1:11:34 Driving the Rover With Different Modes
1:25:04 Setting Up Jetson Nano
1:36:53 Wiring Jetson Nano to Pixhawk
1:39:04 MAVProxy Communication Between Nano and Pixhawk
1:40:39 Python-dronekit Communication Between Nano and Pixhawk
1:42:41 Controlling Rover From Python-Dronekit Scripts
2:05:03 Autonomous Rover Delivery Mission
2:16:55 Conclusion / What's Next?

[Lsourire]

This is one of the best tutorial video I have ever watched on youtube. I have no background in this area at all but still can catchup alot of things you try to explain. I just want to let you know that you really did a great job and eventhough i dont know if I could successfully followed your guide or not but Im appreciated. Please keep up on posting these very helpful videos. From Thailand. liked and subscribed!

[NunzDanny]

You simplified the thing that nobody else could…

This should help me in my 6 wheeled mars rover inspired “earth rover” that actually goes past 1 mph. And water

[smartassist]

Question Sir,

I am a disabled old man, I WANT to take the smallest SEARS push mower and put a JETSON nano on it. Cameras, object ID, rear push wheels free moving front wheels.
Load all software, hardware, wiring, etc. then (1st remote control cut front yard while it records video from all needed cameras). Once yard is cut, go through video and make sure JETSON recognizes all objects, learns exact path/pattern/route. Then hopefully it should follow original movement pattern/path, identify all obstacles, (notify me on new obstacles) but go around them close but safely.

Is that logical in how I accomplish a fully ai automatic mowing of my lawn? Side yard - use 2nd MICROSDXC (or drive to store mapping data.
Then same for rear yard.

I have no idea how much data space needed for each section of yard much less entire yard!

If I mow neighbor’s yard, I just load mapping source of her yard. (Different storage for different yards to cut.)

That way I help elderly, and I make a little money THOUGH DISABLED as I cannot push a mower.

I will hopefully have a BRAND ELECTRIC ZERO TURN MOWER COMPANY sponsor a big mower after showing small mower working.

My yard is almost 2 acres. Small push mower will take forever… but that’s ok if automated!

But with big mower I can help elderly with their yards for free even.

Will you volunteer with guidance? I’m not a programmer but love to work with tech WITH DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS. (BRAIN INJURY) PART IF DISABILITY.

PLEASE REPLY! ALTON

[jackmcnulty]

I am trying to make one with bendyruler and TG30 Lidar. I am not totally clear on how this all goes together. I can say that had I known about your kit I would have bought it. It has all the details of how to build it. And missing just one can be a nightmare. And it is easy to miss. Also the cost is extremely reasonable. Much less than I paid for equivalent components. Really nicely done rover. I wish I started with your kit. I am an ME but by no means an expert in this area. Thank you for the video. Jack

[nikolas]

this is amazing! more about Jetson and pixhawk 4!

[troyrobinson]

This was so freaking helpful, thank you.

[leonardchijioke]

Hello @The Drone Dojo! I am using the FPV Radio Telemetry to connect the mission planner to my CubePilot. I recently downloaded mission planner on my laptop and I had connected the ground module of the radio to my laptop with the air module connected to the CubePilot. I set my baud rate to 57600 and my com port is COM 10 as detected when connected (and as seen on the device manager). When I hit on the connect button in mission planner, it tries connecting for 30 secs and then shows an error message which says, "No Heartbeat Packets Received". Is there a specific thing I have to set before then connecting? I would appreciate your help. Thank you in anticipation of your response.

[lundebc]

Fantastic, this will help me navigate the automation of my (current r/c) mower

[alexandonov]

Are there any problems powering the servo from the AUX 1 output port? I am building something similar and am hearing things about the servo needing external power and that a pixhawk couldnt supply enough power to a servo.

[vonclausewitz]

Thank you for the awesome project! Cant wait to build for my own!

Are LiPo batteries a must? Can That power module and Pixhawk be powered by 12V lead acid battery? I heard LiPos are pretty dangerous and requires lots of care. Same goes for the ESC, do we need to use a LiPo again?

[CncObsession]

Nice video. I enjoyed the modes and route planning in MP. I have a cube orange/rover that I am learning to grasp this stuff on.

[ToTheMaxWorld]

my MAC running Big Sur is not working with flashing firmware on pixhawk in mission planner. It will connect to the pixhawk but I can't get the firmware to come up to flash it

[LuisArtMaker]

my rover kit came with raspberry controller and a different 6 channel receiver and missing 4 screw to secure servo. any suggestions. thanks. luis

[joshmellon]

Holy shit the lawn mower... as I was thinking it in my head you introduced it haha

[archerhasbany]

Awesome! I am doing something similar with a Jetson nano and Pixhawk orange cube. Based on some forums I read, I am planning on using a FTDI adapter to connect the two. This tutorial has been so helpful!!

[Hazar-btnf]

I want to ask that depending on the project can I connect the motors to raspberry pi directly and control them? General usage of connecting motors is to connect them into pixhawk, but I need to connect them into raspberry pi. Do you think it is possible, I think it should be possible to control them, although I connect the motors into raspberry pi, by pixhawk as the communication between raspberry pi and pixhawk bidirectional.

[lindalaymian]

Hello dear friend and thanks for sharing the data

I have an rc car wich is powered by a hobeywing max 8 speed controller and I have augmented it with a pixhawk

the issue which i am encountered with is that I dont know how to callibrate my speed controller and set it up for reverse movement.

do you have any idea how I can do it?

[dominikwurmitzer]

Do you use anything extra?
I use the WiFi-Module myself and the connectivity is very bad. I cannot upload the mission to the controller.

[naufalnajib]

I have mostly component but i just have a pixhawk 2.4.6. So it able to use or not? And if the remot control only one chanel used because i dont have ppm encoder, its able?

[alainachkar]

Fantastic project! Thanks a lot for the detailed video. How much weight can this rover carry or pull behind it?