Jetson AI Fundamentals - S2E1 - JetBot Intro and Hardware

Key Takeaways

hello it's jim from jetsonhacks.com this is the start of a jetson ai fundamental series on the jetbot an easy to build deep learning machine [Music] the jetbot series will consist of several episodes in the first episode this episode we will build the hardware it will look very similar if not exactly like this when we are done in the second episode we will install the software on the robot that will include a docker container which contains all of the deep learning libraries that we will need for the robot to learn its environment in later episodes we will learn how to use deep learning to solve some common robotics problems such as collision avoidance and road following let's here's a green jetbot it's one of the original jetbots that they built at nvidia on the top of the robot we have our jetson nano it is one of the original jetson a02 models at the front of the robot we have a camera it has 145 degrees field of view it's angled slightly downward so that it can see in front of itself a little bit better connected to the gpio pins is an oled display it shows information about the jetbot including the wi-fi address from there the signals from the gpio header are extended so that we can talk to the motors power is supplied to the jetson via the micro usb port there are two usb plugs on the battery one powers the jetson and the other powers the motors let's turn the jetbot over underneath the jetbot you can see the two motors they are connected to the wheels and here's the motor driver the motor driver consists of an i2c to pwm driver which talks to two h bridges the h bridges control the motors the jets and nano speaks i2c the converter converts it to pwm so that the h-bridge drivers can understand it the jetbot only uses one of the h-bridges and then here on the back is a little caster ball it's very slippery it helps the jetbot to balance the jet bot is a differential drive robot it steers by moving the wheels at different speeds the jetbot can go forwards and backwards the jetbot wiki is where we go for all things chatbot go here to get the latest build instructions and all the up-to-date informations if you are building your own a jet pot here's the bill of materials this lists all the parts and some buying options there are also instructions for building the hardware here are some tools you will need here are all the steps to actually build the robot it's very comprehensive along with pictures i like pictures you should be able to follow these and have a working jetbot at the end here's how you mount the motor driver for example wi-fi antennas it tells you how to install your wi-fi card latest and greatest instructions this is where you go anyway go to this page and follow along when you build the project is open source and there's a pretty good size community to support it there are also sections for software setup and there are examples of course we will be covering some of those in the upcoming episodes there are also third-party kits available which contain all of the parts to build a jet bot definitely worth checking out let's take a quick run through some of them here's wave share you can get this through amazon even though these look a little bit different than the jetbot that we will be building they all run the same software sparkfun has a version 2.1 available seed studio silicon highway has them they are a european distributor for the jetsons here's the fabo version this one's kind of fun it's yellow red and blue it looks like a traditional jetbot the donkey car store has the chassis available if you need to find one the jetbot wiki is the place to start it's also where the code is kept that's important too let's start our build we did the traditional way we printed out our own chassis the 3d print files are available on the jetbot wiki there are four parts this is the camera holder these two parts hold the caster ball and this is the main chassis here's the best part let's pull it off the built plate they came out pretty nice this came out as a pretty good print printed out in high quality so let's finish cleaning this up and we can start installing components for this build we're using the adafruit jetbot kit includes all of these parts two motors two wheels an led display some headers and a motor driver we will follow the adafruit instructions and solder the pins to the driver board now let's prepare our motors to prepare the motor remove the original zip tie then remove the clear plastic retainer it needs a little bit of persuasion to remove it rearrange the red and black wires so that you can protect them with the piece of plastic when you reinstall it and then you can attach the motors with 25 millimeter screws it's pretty simple when dealing with screws and small parts use a compartmentalized placemat or a little container that keeps the screws off the floor your vacuum cleaner will thank you prepare the driver board according to the adafruit instructions strip the usb cable according to the instructions on the jetbot wiki this requires a little bit of soldering if you've never taken apart a usb cable before there's a little bit of shielding around the wires that you'll need to cut through and remove these are pretty small wires so you have to be a little bit careful strip a little bit off the end and then insert it into the screw terminal i used a little bit of heat shrink wrapping here to help insulate things make sure that you run the cable through the chassis before you mount the driver and then we use these self-tapping screws to attach the driver to the chassis the motor driver has been secured and i wired the motor the pictures on the wiki are wrong make sure that you read the directions it should be red black red black and now we install the caster ball it's very slippery it's kind of fun it's made of delrin feels like a shell game or something make sure that the ball rolls freely and then secure it with the self-tapping screws next we mount the tires on the wheels then we will mount the wheels on the robot the instructions do not say to do this but i think it would be a valuable addition to our robot installation complete the wheels are now on let's take a look at them it's starting to look like a robot we are ready to install our jetson we are using something a little bit special today we are using one of the new jets and nano 2gbs we have the wi-fi dongle installed and then we attach it to the jetbot using four self tapping screws with the jetson attached to the chassis now we can install the pi oled display i soldered on the right angle header to the oled one thing you may find useful is to use one of the double-sided tapes from the kit and attach the display to something to give you a stable base to solder from this is a little bit challenging use a small tip on your soldering iron try to approach it from the back so you don't touch the oled follow the adafruit instructions that way you don't have to worry about ruining the display next attach the camera to the camera mount and then the camera mount to the chassis using eight self tapping screws we're nearing the home stretch our camera is now installed we will have to remember to remove the lens cap i found that you get a better image that way we are now ready to install the battery we use a couple pieces of double-sided tape to hold the battery in place okay our batteries in place we plugged in our motors not quite sure how this happened but somehow googly eyes got on here we have one more cable to install and that goes from the usb battery port to the usb c connector on the jetson nano 2 gb and then we are ready to run overall this is a pretty easy starter build this is kind of a beginner maker level type of project gives you a good chance to practice your soldering skills but there's not a whole lot of it so it's not tiring and most of the mechanical bits and pieces are pretty forgiving in our next episode in the jetson ai fundamentals jetbot series we will be installing the software and making the motors run on the jetbot hey thanks for watching to learn more visit nvidia.com dli or email us at nvdli at nvidia.com