the Sub · system

Brains

Three independent computers: a bare-metal Supervisor that owns the failsafes, a Pixhawk flight controller, and a Jetson AI brain for the mission and the cameras.

Decisions & notes

Brains (compute)

Three independent computers: a bare-metal Supervisor (STM32) that owns the failsafes + dead-man watchdog; a Pixhawk 6C running ArduSub (flight control + EKF); a Jetson Orin for the mission agent, vision, and comms.
The Jetson today: an Orin Nano Super 8 GB (~67 TOPS in Super mode). The carrier takes a pin-compatible Orin NX 16 GB as a drop-in upgrade — 2x the RAM, ~2x the AI throughput, plus hardware video encode — when the vision workload calls for it.
The supervisor is unaware AI exists *by design* — it just keeps the vehicle alive.
Boots from NVMe; peripherals fan out over a powered USB hub + an Ethernet switch.

Parts (9)

Flight controller	Pixhawk 6C (aluminum case)	Arrived
AI computer	Jetson Orin Nano Super dev kit 8GB	Arrived
Supervisor MCU ×2	ST Nucleo-F446RE (incl 1 spare)	Arrived
Ethernet switch	BotBlox GigaBlox Nano (4x gigabit, 26mm, 5-60V)	Arrived
Switch connector board	BotBlox GigaBlox Nano Pico-Conn (PicoBlade->RJ45)	Arrived
Jetson boot SSD	NVMe M.2 SSD 256–512GB	Arrived
microSD cards ×2	microSD 64GB (Pixhawk logging) + spare	Arrived
Powered USB hub	Yahboom USB 3.0 HUB (VL817, 4x USB-A 3.0, 9-24V in, 5A) — 68.5x60.35x19.6mm, fits 4in bore	Arrived
Strobe (12V)	Waterproof LED beacon (supervisor-driven)	Arrived