VNX RMCB – ROBOT MAIN CONTROL BOARD
OVERVIEW
One board, the whole robot’s power and nervous system
Most robotics teams stitch a robot together from a motor driver, a battery management stage, a sensor breakout, and a compute carrier board — four points of failure, four firmware stacks, and four connectors to route through a chassis. VNX RMCB replaces that stack with a single, purpose-built controller.
It accepts a wide 24–60 V battery pack directly, drives two independent high-current motor channels with full protection, distributes clean 12 V and 5 V rails to peripherals, and exposes the communication buses that real robotic subsystems actually use — CAN 2.0, RS-485, LIN, and an addressable RGB status bus — alongside direct compute headers for NVIDIA Jetson Orin and a regulated rail for Raspberry Pi 5.
A dedicated, field-replaceable MEMS IMU module and six ultrasonic sensor headers give the board native proprioception and obstacle-awareness out of the box, so integration time goes into the robot, not the wiring harness.
Key capabilities
| Dual motor drive Two independent high-current channels, up to 100 A each depending on system configuration, with 4× XT30 auxiliary outputs. | Full protection stack Soft-start power-up, reverse-current and reverse-polarity protection, multi-stage ESD, live current / voltage / temperature monitoring. | Wide-voltage input Direct 24–60 V battery support via a main XT60 input, sized for LiPo/Li-ion packs from small utility bots to full-size platforms. |
| Communication suite 2× CAN 2.0 up to 1 Mbps, RS-485, LIN bus and a dedicated WS2812B addressable-LED interface for status and signalling. | Compute-ready Native support for NVIDIA Jetson Orin plus a dual-channel 12/ 5 V / 6 A rail for Raspberry Pi 5 and similar SBCs. | Modular MEMS IMU Field-swappable IMU module — BMI088, ICM-42688, ISM330 and similar parts on a shared SPI/I²C footprint. |
| Ultrasonic array Six dedicated ultrasonic sensor close-range obstacle detection. | Wireless link Pairs with the VNX custom remote controller over a 2.4 GHz radio interface for teleoperation and E-stop. | Peripheral power 4× 12 V outputs up to 4 A per channel for displays, speakers and microphones on the robot’s HMI stack. |
BOARD MAP
Every connector, mapped
Top-side layout of the VNX RMCB, annotated for bring-up and harness design.
SPECIFICATIONS
Technical specifications
Power input
| Battery input range | 24–60 V DC, wide-voltage architecture |
| Main input connector | XT60 primary battery input |
| Input protections | Reverse polarity, over-voltage, soft-start, multi-stage ESD |
Motor drive outputs
| Channels | 2× independent high-power channels (CH-A, CH-B) |
| Peak current | Up to 100 A per channel, depending on system configuration |
| Auxiliary outputs | 4× XT30 auxiliary power outputs |
| Monitoring | Per-channel current, voltage and temperature sensing |
| Protections | Reverse-current protection, multi-stage ESD |
Auxiliary power rails
| 12 V outputs | 2× channels, up to 4 A each — displays, speakers, microphones |
| 5 V output | Dual-channel, 6 A — dedicated SBC supply (e.g. Raspberry Pi 5) |
| Fan output | Dedicated switched FAN rail for active cooling |
Communication interfaces
| CAN bus | 2× CAN 2.0 ports, up to 1 Mbps — one direct to Jetson Orin, one dedicated to the safety board |
| RS-485 | Integrated interface for long-distance, multi-device industrial links |
| LIN bus | Onboard LIN interface for automotive-grade peripheral networks |
| RGB status bus | Dedicated WS2812B addressable-LED interface |
| Wireless | VNX custom remote controller |
Sensing & safety
| IMU interface | VNX Form-Factor Modular MEMS IMU — SPI & I²C, hot-swappable |
| Supported IMUs | BMI088, ICM-42688, ISM330 and pin-compatible parts |
| Emergency stop | Dedicated E-STOP input, routed to the safety CAN channel |
Compute support
| Primary compute | NVIDIA Jetson Orin — Onboard mounting, cooling and CAN link |
| Secondary compute | Raspberry Pi 5 or similar SBC via regulated 12/5 V / 6 A rail |
| Onboard MCU | Microcontroller for drive control, monitoring and watchdog |
Mechanical & environmental
| Board dimensions (L × W) | 170mm x 120mm |
| Mounting pattern | 5 x Metric 3mm |
| Operating temperature | -40°C to +85°C |
APPLICATIONS
Where VNX RMCB goes to work
One controller architecture, sized and configured across very different robot classes.
Legged platforms — Quadruped & legged robots
Drives dual high-torque joint actuators per leg group, streams IMU orientation data for gait balance, and reports joint currents over CAN for real-time load estimation.
Humanoid platforms — Humanoid robots
Wide-voltage input and dual-channel drive support high-density actuator packs, while the CAN and RS-485 buses fan out to distributed joint controllers.
Service & hospitality — Service & reception robots
12 V / 5 V rails power displays, speakers and microphones directly, and the WS2812B interface drives status lighting for guest-facing interaction.
Modular actuation — Actuator & joint drives
The dual 100 A-class motor channels and auxiliary XT30 outputs are sized for direct-drive and quasi-direct-drive actuator modules used in modern joint design.
IMU MODULES
VNX Form-Factor Modular MEMS IMU
Inertial performance requirements change with every robot: a quadruped’s gait controller wants low-noise, high-bandwidth gyro data; a slow-moving service robot cares more about long-term drift and cost. Soldering a single IMU to the main board forces that trade-off at design time — and locks it in for the life of the product.
The VNX Form-Factor Modular MEMS IMU is a small daughter-board on a shared mechanical and electrical footprint, connected over SPI or I²C. Swapping BMI088 for ICM-42688 or ISM330 — or a future sensor generation — is a module change, not a main-board respin.
Module swap workflow
- 1. Unseat the current IMU module
- 2. Seat the replacement module
- 3. No main-board redesign required
BMI088 module — S/N 26A-05-0040 — SPI / I²C, 6-axis
High dynamic-range accelerometer and gyroscope pairing, well suited to legged robots and platforms with sustained vibration.
ICM-42688 module — S/N 26A-05-0041 — SPI / I²C, 6-axis
Low-noise, high-bandwidth 6-axis MEMS IMU for platforms running tight state-estimation and balance loops.
ISM330DLC module — S/N 26A-05-0042 — SPI / I²C, 6-axis
Industrial-grade IMU with strong long-term stability, suited to service robots and slower-dynamics platforms.