Fast and inexpensive prototyping can be accomplished by combining LEGO Technic for interacting with the environment and a NVIDIA Jetson for computer vision.
To control LEGO Power Functions’ motors and/or servo motors with a NVIDIA Jetson Nano, a PCA9685 and an H-bridge (L293) can be used. The PCA9685 offers 16 PWM (pulse-width modulation) channels and is controlled via I2C from the NVIDIA Jetson.
By changing the duty cycle of the PWM channels rotation speed of a Power Functions’ motor. Also the rotation direction can be set. The position of a servo motor is controllable by the duty cycle of the PWM channel.
The wiring of the LEGO Power Functions’ cable is simple and a breakout cable can be soldered in a few minutes.
This tutorial video is part of a series of videos on LEGO Technic Power Functions control:
LEGO Power Functions - cable layout
LEGO Power Functions - motor control
LEGO Power Functions - servo control
Arduino - GPIO motor control
Arduino - GPIO servo control
Arduino - PCA9685 motor/servo control
Jetson Nano - PCA9685 motor/servo control