An autonomous inspection rover that navigates industrial facilities and scans structures both visually and with IR in extreme environments so engineers don't have to.
An autonomous modular inspection rover built for industrial deployment in the UAE.
Argus uses a Raspberry Pi 5 with a Hailo-8 AI accelerator to run onboard computer vision inference, combining thermal imaging, laser distance sensing, and environmental monitoring to detect anomalies and generate inspection reports — without a human entering the space.
Target deployment: industrial lighting and facility inspection at BEEAH and similar UAE industrial clients.
Industrial inspection in the UAE involves large facilities, extreme heat, and environments where sending a human is slow, expensive, or dangerous. Argus is built to operate in those spaces autonomously, flagging thermal anomalies and obstacles in real time via a Flask web dashboard accessible remotely.
The rover is designed as a modular platform — sensor bays swap in under three minutes using GX12 aviation connectors for electrical disconnect and cam levers on 2020 aluminium extrusion for mechanical lock. One chassis, multiple inspection configurations.
Compute
- Raspberry Pi 5 8GB
- Raspberry Pi Active Cooler
- Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ 26 TOPS (Hailo-8 accelerator)
- ESP32 WROOM-32 DevKit V1 (motor and low-level sensor control)
Propulsion
- 4x JGB37-520 12V 200RPM DC motors with encoders
- 4x BTS7960 43A H-bridge motor drivers (one per motor)
- 4x 120mm rubber off-road wheels, direct 6mm D-shaft mount
Power
- Gens Ace 3S 11.1V 5000mAh 50C LiPo, XT60
- Dual 10A 50W IP68 synchronous buck converters (5V rail)
- 30A inline fuse, panel-mount kill switch
- 1000uF 16V low-ESR capacitors on Pi 5V input
Sensors
- MLX90640 32x24 IR thermal array, 55° FOV
- Pi Camera Module 3 Standard, 75°, on DS3218 pan/tilt servo
- 2x VL53L1X laser ToF distance sensors
- BME280 temperature, humidity, pressure (I2C)
- 3x DS18B20 waterproof temperature probes (1-Wire)
- INA219 current and voltage monitor (battery telemetry)
Structure
- Aluminium chassis plate, 4mm 6061-T6, laser cut
- 2020 aluminium extrusion upper sensor rack
- IP67 ABS electronics enclosure, ~251x126x85mm internal
- GX12 6-pin aviation connectors (tool-free electrical disconnect)
- M5 cam levers + dowel pins (tool-free mechanical modularity)
- 2x Jamicon 40mm 12V fans, cross-flow ventilation
- 18AWG silicone wire throughout
- Python
- OpenCV + Hailo RT for onboard CV inference
- MLX90640 thermal threshold and anomaly detection
- Flask web dashboard (live feed, sensor telemetry, remote control)
- Auto-generated PDF inspection reports
- GPIO and I2C for sensor integration
- ESP32 over UART for motor control
Active build. Parts arriving June 2026. Target: functional inspection demo, August 2026. Pitched to MBRIF and BEEAH for UAE industrial deployment. Submitted as part of Hack Club Stardance 2026.
- Chassis assembly and motor control via ESP32
- Pi 5 + AI HAT+ bring-up and thermal camera integration
- Flask dashboard with live thermal and visual feed
- VL53L1X obstacle detection
- Environmental sensor logging (BME280, DS18B20, INA219)
- Autonomous waypoint navigation
- Auto-generated PDF inspection report
- Field test at industrial site
- BEEAH facility demonstration