NVIDIA gives mobile robots all-around sight with Nova Carter

Development of commercial-grade mobile robots is a time-consuming process, but NVIDIA Corp. offers to accelerate that process with the Nova Carter platform. It enables surround vision for autonomous navigation, freeing developers to focus on other applications for artificial intelligence in robotics, said the Santa Clara, Calif.-based company.

Selecting, integrating, and calibrating sensors -- not to mention developing necessary device drivers -- can take years. Released in October, Nova Carter is a fully functional autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that can help streamline development, according to the NVIDIA.

The AMR provides “out-of-the box” support for capabilities including 3D mapping, visual simultaneous localization and mapping (vSLAM), and stereo-based depth estimation. Nova Carter also provides global localization, AI-based object detection and segmentation, and more for factory or warehouse operations, said NVIDIA.

It is powered by the Nova Orin reference architecture, which integrates the Segway RMP Lite 220 differential drive, NVIDIA Jetson AGX Orin for accelerated computing with ROS 2, and a suite of cameras and lidar sensors for 360-degree perception.

In addition, Nova Carter’s sensors offer a data rate of more than 800 megapixels per second, asserted the company. It includes the sensor drivers and initialization software to configure the robot, as well as systems to calibrate the cameras to the lidar.

Not only does Nova Carter support 3D mapping, but it also provides ROS 2 packages for operation with Nav2, said NVIDIA. A digital twin model in Isaac Sim enables software-in-the-loop and hardware-in-the-loop testing.

NVIDIA boasted that Nova Carter increases high-resolution perception by 12x through time-synchronized color sensors. It said the platform will help robotics developers drive further innovation across industries.

NVIDIA is offering Nova Carter with partner Segway-Ninebot, which provides robots for indoor and outdoor deliveries, intralogistics, inspection, and cleaning.

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