Waveshare UGV Beast is an off-road robot with tracked wheels designed for Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 SBC handling AI vision and strategy planning, while an ESP32 sub-controller takes care of motion control and sensor data processing.
If the design feels familiar, it’s because it’s a variant of the UGV Rover unmanned ground vehicle we covered in 2024, which replaces the six wheels of the original model with two continuous tracks, as found in military tanks, for better driving in difficult terrain.
Waveshare UGV Beast specifications:
- Supported SBCs – Raspberry Pi 4B or Raspberry Pi 5
- Multi-function driver board/sub-controller
- Main SoC – ESP32 wireless microcontroller with WiFi, Bluetooth, ESPNOW connectivity
- Motor drivers – 2x TB6612FNG chips
- Peripheral interfaces
- 4x motor control connectors
- 2x servo connectors
- Lidar USB (4-pin) and UART (USB-C) connectors
- 2x 4-pin I2C connectors
- Sensor – 9-axis attitude sensor (ICM20948) for image stabilization
- Misc – EN and user buttons
- Power
- 2x 12V switch controllers by ESP32 IO4 and IO5 pins
- Battery voltage monitoring via INA219
- Audio driver board
- SSS1629A5 USB audio chip
- APA2068 audio amplifier
- Stereo speaker
- Stereo microphone
- 3.5mm audio jack
- USB-C port
- 4-pin Lidar UART interface
- Pan-and-tilt camera (optional)
- 5MP camera with 160° FoV
- ST3215 servo with 30kg.cm torque
- DoF – 2 (pan and tilt)
- 360° horizontal and 120° vertical rotation
- High-brightness LED light for clear images in low-light conditions
- Connectivity
- Gigabit Ethernet, WiFi 5, and Bluetooth 5 on Raspberry Pi 4/5 SBC
- 2.4 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth on ESP32, including ESP-NOW support
- Optional 4G LTE/5G cellular module
- Expansion – 40-pin GPIO header
- Mechanical features
- 2mm thick aluminum alloy body
- 2x 1020 European standard profile rails for peripherals, including D500 lidar, STL-27L lidar, and pan-and-tilt camera.
- Suspension material – Stainless steel
- 2x continuous wheels
- Track width – 40mm
- Minimum turning radius – 0M (In-situ rotation)
- Default Max speed – 0.35m/s, or 1.26 km/h
- Smartphone holder support
- Power Options
- Holder for 3x 18650 Lithium batteries
- 3S UPS module
- Dimensions and Weight
- Without camera – 232×197×122mm | 2.034 kg
- With PT camera – 232×197×252mm | 2.35 kg
The Raspberry Pi 4/5 SBC runs Debian Bookworm (I assume Raspberry Pi OS) and ROS2-HUMBLE-LTS. No app is required, and instead, the UGV Beast can be controlled from a smartphone, tablet, or computer through a web browser. Waveshare explains that they implemented a lightweight Flask web application with WebRTC ultra-low latency real-time transmission. The company also mentions that JupyterLab is used for interactive tutorials, graphic tutorials, and video tutorials, but that part appears to be under construction (it’s empty).
The robot can also be programmed with Python. OpenCV is supported for color recognition, automatic targeting, face recognition, gesture control, line tracking, and more. The OpenCV library and MediaPipe open-source framework can also be combined for more complex computer vision applications and real-time video analytics. The company also highlights support for the ESP-NOW peer-to-peer communication protocol for low-latency robot-to-robot communication. More details about software resources and tutorials are available on the wiki.
It’s not the first tracked wheel robot we’ve covered here, and alternatives include the Raspberry Pi CM4-powered Doly robot and the Arduino-compatible Makeblock Ultimate 2.0 educational robot kit. However, those are for indoor use only, and the UGV Beast is a larger Raspberry Pi 4/5 robot with off-road capabilities and additional features.
The UGV Beast chassis starts at about $360 on AliExpress and $370 on Amazon without a Raspberry Pi 4/5 and camera. However, the company also sells kits with a PT camera, and full kits with the camera and Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 reloaded with ROS2 for up to $591.55 on AliExpress (same link) and $899.99 on Amazon, where I can also see a NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano 4GB kit for about $1200. Alternatively, it’s also available directly on the Waveshare shop for $264.99 to $500.99 plus shipping.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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