USB3 Camera SDK Enables Fast Integration with Jetson Orin
The engineering team working on our Harrier range of USB autofocus-zoom cameras has released an improved USB3 Linux software development kit (SDK).
This version contains a virtual serial port that enables VISCA commands to be sent directly to the camera. It has also been built and tested on ARM systems and in particular, Orin-based Jetson systems. The new software allows for a much smoother use of USB cameras in Linux systems by providing instant control of the camera when powering an AFZ block camera from a Linux USB port.
What is Jetson Orin?
NVIDIA Jetson Orin is a high-performance edge AI computing module designed for robotics, autonomous machines, and advanced embedded applications. It features the NVIDIA Orin system-on-chip (SoC) with an Ampere architecture GPU and a 12-core Arm Cortex-A78AE CPU.
Why Integrating a USB Block Camera with Jetson Orin Makes Sense
Harrier USB block cameras comply with the UVC (USB Video Class) standard. It is used by USB webcams and support for this standard is easily added to Linux builds and is often already present in distributions. For Jetson Orin users that means once the SDK is installed the USB camera is instantly recognized by Jetson’s Ubuntu-based JetPack OS. Within minutes, you can stream video using v4l2-ctl, GStreamer, or DeepStream and start running AI models on live data.
Why choose USB cameras in robotics, surveillance and industrial scenarios?
USB offers mechanical flexibility – unlike MIPI cables, off the shelf USB3 cables can stretch several meters (or more with active extenders) making it easier to mount cameras on robotic arms, surveillance kits or industrial equipment whilst keeping the Jetson computer safely housed elsewhere. Power, camera control and video data are delivered through the same cable, simplifying wiring.
USB cameras are also easy to scale and maintain. Each device enumerates independently, making multi-camera setups straightforward for small systems. Hot-swapping cameras or updating firmware rarely requires a reboot, and standard Linux/UVC tools provide high-resolution uncompressed video and full camera control.
USB vs. HDMI or IP
HDMI can carry video over the same distances, but the video has to connect to a HDMI capture card, and separate cables are required for power and camera control.
IP/Ethernet can supply power using PoE but the software for the camera control is more complex and the video is compressed; this brings longer video latency and lower quality images.
In short, pairing a Harrier USB Autofocus-Zoom Camera with Jetson Orin delivers quick setup of high-quality video that can be directly accessed for the Orin’s powerful AI processing.
Take a look at the Harrier cameras available and get in touch with our team to see how simply you could get your vision system up and running.
