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MARS was designed for hardware extensibility through several features:
  • Most GPIO pins are available on the onboard computer.
  • Four USB-A extension ports are available: two directly on the Jetson and two powered ports on the top USB hub.
  • The hardware is open-sourced in order to be easier to modify, in particular the end-effector.
We describe below how we recommend to extend MARS on the hardware side.

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Changing the end-effector

The end effector by default is a gripper (opposable thumbs). By nature of robot learning, if you change the end effector to any other shape, you will have to recollect your data for your manipulation models, but nothing else in the operating system needs to change if you still use the last actuator. Examples of two different types of end effectors we used without changing the code:

MARS v1 gripper

MARS v1 gripper

One-side moving gripper

One-side moving gripper

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Adding sensors and effectors on the USB and GPIOs

Users can integrate additional sensors on the available ports. For any added device, make sure it is mounted and installed properly on the robot. You can then feed data into the BASIC OS by creating a Sensor object in the SDK (TBD). Some sensors we have already tried and work plug-and-play on MARS:
  • TONOR directional microphone ($29 on Amazon) - MARS already has a built-in microphone. This optional add-on improves directional pickup. Plug it in and use TONORMicrophoneInput (TBD).
  • Blackiot Polverine Air Quality Sensor.

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Example: Adding a directional microphone (optional)

MARS can already listen with its built-in microphone. If you want more directional pickup, plug in a directional microphone and follow the Example: Microphone guide.