Machine learning made easy with two SparkFun AI kits

By Gina Roos, editor-in-chief

SparkFun Electronics, working with NVIDIA, offers two new development kits to get you started with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning designs. The new kits include the JetBot AI Kit powered by the NVIDIA Jetson Nano and the Course Materials Kit for “Getting Started with AI on the Jetson Nano” from NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Institute.

The JetBot combines the machine-learning capabilities of the NVIDIA Jetson NANO with SparkFun’s sensors and accessories. The kit is a ready-to-assemble robotics platform and requires no additional components or 3D printing to get started. It includes the JetBot Robot Operating System (ROS) and AWS RoboMaker with AWS IoT Greengrass pre-installed. Popular AI frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch, Caffe, and MXNet are supported, and Jetson Nano is capable of running multiple neural networks in parallel to process data and drive action.

SparkFun's JetBot AI kit

The Jetson Nano Developer Kit offers extensibility through a GPIO header and associated programming capabilities with tools like the Jetson GPIO Python library. The kit includes the SparkFun Qwiic pHat for Raspberry Pi, which provides access to the SparkFun Qwiic ecosystem from within the Jetson Nano environment, enabling the integration of more than 30 daisy-chainable sensors without soldering. 

The SparkFun JetBot AI Kit includes the following:

• NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit
• Robot platform chassis and all prototyping electronics
• 64-GB MicroSD card (pre-flashed with the JetBot Image)
• 145 field of view, wide-angle camera module
• Wi-Fi adapter
• Serial-controlled motor driver
• Micro OLED breakout

If you own a Jetson Nano Developer Kit, SparkFun also released a version of the JetBot Kit without one.

To get started with AI an additional kit has been made available for NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Institute (DLI) course. Everything needed for this course is included in the SparkFun DLI Kit for Jetson Nano, including the NVIDIA Jetson Nano Developer Kit, 32-GB MicroSD card, Raspberry Pi camera module, power supply (5 V, 4 A), USB cable, and jumpers.

SparkFun DLI Kit for Jetson Nano