The original Jetson Nano Developer Kit is end-of-life, and the recommended Orin Nano build costs far more and still lacks finished JetBot software.
JetBot is NVIDIA's open reference design for a small two-wheel AI robot built around a Jetson board, a wide-angle camera and a 3D-printed chassis. It is programmed from a web browser through Jupyter notebooks that walk through basic motion, teleoperation, collision avoidance, road following and object following.
At a glance
| Parts cost | $640 (2024) parts list · Sum of the prices on the project's Orin Nano parts page, where the Jetson Orin Nano developer kit alone is $499. The original Jetson Nano build was stated as under $250 source ↗ |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 2/5 Easy · Few parts, a printed chassis and light soldering, with prebuilt SD images for the original Nano, though the Orin path lacks finished software. |
| Build time | 10 to 12 hours of 3D printing (assembly time not stated) source ↗ |
| Tools needed | 3D printer (10-12 h, under 100 g PLA; print services quoted as an alternative), soldering iron (motor driver headers and terminals), pliers, wire stripper, Phillips and hex screwdrivers |
| Motors | 2 TT gear motors driven by an Adafruit motor driver board (Adafruit product 2927) |
| Controller | NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit (original) or Jetson Orin Nano 8GB Developer Kit (newer parts list) |
| Sensors | Single wide-angle IMX219 CSI camera; PiOLED status display |
| Published | ✓ Parts list✓ CAD/STL✓ Assembly guide✗ Wiring✓ Software✗ Video MkDocs website (jetbot.org) built from the GitHub repo, STL files, Jupyter notebooks, prebuilt SD card images |
| Activity | Last update 2026-06-30 · 3,338 GitHub stars · NVIDIA Jetson developer forums; 1,075 GitHub forks; 69 open issues |
| Kits | Third-party kits from Waveshare, SparkFun, Seeed Studio, Silicon Highway and FaBo are listed by the project (current availability unconfirmed) |
Licenses
| Design files | MIT (same repo-wide LICENSE.md covers the STL files in assets/; no separate hardware license found) source ↗ |
|---|---|
| Code | MIT (LICENSE.md, Copyright 2019 NVIDIA) source ↗ |
| Documentation | MIT (same repo-wide LICENSE.md; no separate docs or image license found) source ↗ |
Builder notes
Practical points from the project's issue tracker, forum and docs, each linked to its source.
- The Jetson Nano Developer Kit the design was built around is discontinued. NVIDIA staff announced in December 2023 that it would be phased out as inventory ran down, while the bare Jetson Nano module stays available through January 2027. source ↗
- The docs now point new builders to a Jetson Orin Nano 8GB parts list added in 2024, but they also say the Orin software is still a work in progress, and an open request for an Orin-ready image has had no maintainer answer. source ↗
- On the Orin build the project advises running the board in 7 W mode, since 15 W mode caused shutdowns when the motors ramped hard or stalled. The battery listed for that build has since vanished from Amazon. source ↗
- Many power banks that claim enough output still cut out under load or do not fit the battery bay, which measures roughly 136 x 71 x 20 mm according to a maintainer. source ↗
- The prebuilt SD images (JetPack 4.5, JetBot 0.4.3) were briefly unavailable in late 2024 and were moved to new hosting in October 2024. Recent repo activity is limited to documentation wording. source ↗
Other wheeled plans
- Donkey Car · $250–$300 · difficulty 2/5
- LeKiwi · $480 · difficulty 2/5
- OpenBot (smartphone robot) · $50 (2020) · difficulty 2/5
- XLeRobot · $660 · difficulty 3/5
- F1TENTH (RoboRacer) autonomous race car · $3,000 · difficulty 3/5
- OpenMower · $790 · difficulty 3/5
- Upkie wheeled biped · $4,600 · difficulty 4/5
- TidyBot++ · $5,200–$6,300 (2024) · difficulty 4/5
- MuSHR racecar · $1,100 (2022) · difficulty 3/5