For drone deployment, the Orin Nano needs careful power and thermal management. 15 W under sustained inference workloads, with thermal throttling kicking in above ~80°C junction temperature.
Power budget (typical)
| Subsystem | Power |
|---|---|
| Orin Nano (running inference + ROS 2) | 12-15 W |
| 4× brushless motors (hover) | 100-150 W |
| Sensors + servos | 5 W |
| Total | ~125 W |
On a 3S 5000 mAh LiPo (55 Wh) — theoretical max ~26 min hover. Practical: ~15-20 min with margin.
Thermal
The reference dev kit has a fan and heatsink — both required under sustained inference. For a drone deployment:
- Active airflow from props gives ~3 m/s passive airflow at the dev-kit fan. Often enough on its own.
- Heatsink upgrade to a copper finned heatsink lowers steady-state temp by ~10°C.
- No fan option exists but only at 5 W TDP — too restrictive for our workload.
Where to go next
- Edge compute decision — power budget context
- Jetson Nano hub