Jetson Nano in Drones: Role, Specs, and Real-World Applications (With Example)

Drones are fascinating pieces of technology with a wide range of applications across commercial, consumer, agricultural, and defense sectors.

Speaking of global drone industry, it experiencing significant growth across various sectors, including commercial, consumer, agricultural, and defense applications.

• The global drone market is projected to reach $73.06 billion in 2024, with an expected growth at a CAGR of 14.3% from 2025 to 2030. [Source: Grand View Research]
• The commercial drones are valued at $13.86 billion in 2024, and anticipated to grow to $65.25 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 20.8% . [Source: Fortune Business Insights]
• The drone delivery market was valued at $426.1 million in 2023 and is forecasted to grow to $7.22 billion by 2033. [Source: SQMagazine]

This significantly means that drone industries are revolutionizing the future. Between these industries, the Jetson Nano plays an centric role.

What Is Jetson Nano

Jetson Nano is an hand size and powerful computer developed by NVIDIA designed specifically for AI, robotics, and edge computing projects.

It is available in two forms (Jetson Nano Development Kit and Jetson Nano Module) that empower developers, students, and hobbyist to build and deploy AI-powered application focuses on deep learning, computer vision, and autonomous machine.

Hardware Specification Of Jetson Nano

As Jetson Nano appears in two physical hardware assets incubate distinct characteristics and specifications.

Jetson Nano Development Kit

• Size: 100 mm x 80 mm
• CPU: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 MPCore processor
• GPU: 128-core NVIDIA Maxwell™ GPU
• Memory: 4 GB 64-bit LPDDR4 (25.6 GB/s)
• Storage: microSD card slot (supports UHS-1)
• Display Output: HDMI 2.0 and eDP 1.4
• Camera Interface: 1x MIPI CSI-2 camera connector (15-position FPC)
• Connectivity: Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi & Bluetooth (via external adapter)
• USB Ports: 4x USB 3.0 Type-A, 1x micro-USB (for power and data)
• Other I/O: GPIO, I2C, I2S, SPI, UART, PWM (via 40-pin GPIO header)
• Power Supply: 5V⎓4A via barrel jack or micro-USB (5V⎓2A supported with reduced performance)
• Cooling: Passive heatsink (fan upgrade recommended)

Jetson Nano Module (Production Version)

• Size: 69.6 mm x 45 mm
• CPU: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A57 MPCore processor
• GPU: 128-core Maxwell GPU
• Memory: 4 GB LPDDR4 (25.6 GB/s)
• Storage: 16 GB eMMC 5.1
• Display Output: HDMI 2.0 and eDP 1.4 (via carrier board)
• Camera Interface: 1x MIPI CSI-2 x2 (via carrier board)
• Connectivity: Requires carrier board for Ethernet, USB, etc.
• Expansion I/O: 260-pin edge connector (connects to custom carrier board)
• Power Supply: 5V⎓2A or 5V⎓4A (via carrier)
• Cooling: Depends on system design (passive or active heatsink)

Role Of Jetson Nano In Drones

Well, both hardware assets can be used in making autonomous drones. Due to compact size of Jetson Nano Module is highly used for real drones development with the following features.

1. Onboard AI Inference

Jetson Nano enables drones to run AI models locally for tasks related to object detection and tracking, obstacle avoidance, vehicle following, and gesture recognition.

These features highly assist developer in design robust drones for consumes or commercial use cases while also eliminating the need for remote processing, reducing latency and improving reliability.

2. Computer Vision

The Nano processes video streams from onboard cameras using frameworks like OpenCV or TensorRT. This make your drone empower with computer vision to understand its environment, identify terrain features, and recognize landing zones.

3. Autonomous Navigation

They beauty of embedding Jetson Nano in drone making project ensure map surroundings in 3D, help in make path-planning decisions, and avoid collisions. This can be achieved using AI models and sensor fusion.

4. Edge Processing

Jetson Nano comes with edge processing characteristic that eliminate the process of sending videos and sensor data to a cloud server. Jetson Nano Module can process data onboard in real time, converse bandwidth, and make it effectively secure.

5. Integration with ROS

Jetson Nano is compatible with Robot Operating System (ROS), which is widely used in drone and robotics projects to manage computational elements such as sensor data, motor control, and communication.

Conclusion

Jetson Nano capabilities are not limited to Drone industries, in fact, it has widespread applications in Robotics, STEM education, and Edge AI.

It is worth saying that Jetson Nano computing capabilities are conventional for enterprises and hobbyist. Ending notes, these characteristics of Jetson Nano in drone will help innovators design robust and meaningful drones for users.

That’s all in this blog. Thanks for reading 🙂

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Bharat Kumar

Bharat is an editor and staff writer for The Next Tech. A recent addition to the news team, he is involved in generating stories for topics that spread across The Next Tech's categories. His interest in Consumer Tech and AI Tools help bring the latest update to our readers. He is always up to learn new things and is a die-hard fan of Valorant and Call of Duty Saga(s).

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