JetBot Is NVIDIA's Newest DIY Robot: Open-Source, Ubuntu-Powered, Built Around The Jetson Nano

For demonstrating the many use-cases around the $99 Jetson Nano that was announced on Monday, NVIDIA engineers devised an open-source robot that you can build yourself with mostly 3D printed parts and by default is geared to run on Ubuntu Linux.

NVIDIA won't be selling the Jetbot as a retail product, but it's something you can build yourself with the Jetbot Nano. NVIDIA will be providing detailed instructions and parts lists on GitHub along with all of the necessary software resources. NVIDIA did send over a pre-built JetBot with the Jetson Nano review sample, which I've had the time to try out briefly.

The Jetson Nano is running Ubuntu 18.04 LTS as it's using the reference L4T image and other common software components. After setting up the JetBot to access your WiFi network, the JetBot can be accesses from any web browser on your LAN where there is then a web-based IDE that includes a terminal and Python editor as well as step-by-step examples.

The available code samples right now for the JetBot include allowing the remote driving of the car through the web browser with a game pad, the ability for JetBot to follow an object using AI recognition, and object avoidance using AI. All of the code samples are making use of Python 3.

I've only had a brief amount of time to experiment with the JetBot, but it was a lot of fun and certainly would be a learning experience for users of any age.

Those wanting to learn more about this DIY robot can do so via GitHub. And if you missed it, see our initial Jetson Nano review/benchmarks while follow-up tests are forthcoming.