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Modular sensing for robots

A plug-and-play board for cameras and sensors across the whole robot. Even the big ones.

Specifications

Value Proposition

Wiring is not your job

01

Get your sensors and cameras running in minutes

Stop losing hours to sensor configuration, camera setup, wiring checks, or jumper debugging. Focus on perception, autonomy, and field testing instead.

02

Move from part selection to system design

NXS turns 2K+ sensor options into validated configurations, helping you choose hardware that fits together before the build begins.

03

Don't let wiring decide the design

With CAN, GMSL, and serial connectivity, NXS helps place modules across large robot bodies, inside limbs, enclosures, and remote areas that are usually hard to reach.

Reviews and online

Read what others published

CNX Software: Aliensense NXS is a plug-and-play GMSL 2/3 and CAN-FD sensor board for robots

CNX Software

Aliensense NXS is a plug-and-play GMSL 2/3 and CAN-FD sensor board for robots

Abu Dhabi-based Aliensense has introduced NXS, a compact sensor board designed to easily connect cameras and sensors to robots, without custom wiring or driver work.

Product Hunt: NXS by Aliensense: a sensor board that gets your robot running in minutes

Product Hunt

NXS by Aliensense: a sensor board that gets your robot running in minutes

It handles the wiring and driver setup automatically, so cameras and sensors are streaming usable data in minutes instead of weeks.

Open Robotics Discourse: NXS: ROS 2 topics for GMSL2/3 cameras and CAN-FD/serial sensors, no custom bridge

Open Robotics Discourse

NXS: ROS 2 topics for GMSL2/3 cameras and CAN-FD/serial sensors, no custom bridge

Camera or sensor needs to sit far from compute, and there is no clean way to get data back without writing bridge code and fighting timing between nodes.

Open Robotics Discourse: First VIO demo: global-shutter camera + IMU streamed over one GMSL2 coax, mapped live in ROS 2

Open Robotics Discourse

First VIO demo: global-shutter camera + IMU streamed over one GMSL2 coax, mapped live in ROS 2

A global-shutter camera and IMU share one GMSL2 coax for data and power, estimated in real time on a Jetson with ROS 2 and OpenVINS. Return-to-start after a 25 m loop: 42 cm.

Open Robotics Discourse: Three bugs that changed how our sensor board talks to ROS 2

Open Robotics Discourse

Three bugs that changed how our sensor board talks to ROS 2

micro-ROS ate 60% of flash before any of our own code. The device speaks Cyphal now, and ROS 2 runs host-side behind a thin bridge.

Go beyond the bench

For robots that leave the lab

Turning prototypes into working robots in no time

Prototyping

Bench prototyping

Connect, test, and validate camera and sensor setups before the robot is built.

Start from a laptop or x86 configuration, then carry proven configurations into deployment.

Edge Perception

Autonomous mobile robots

Extend rovers and field machines with networked sensor nodes that fit your existing architecture.

NXS runs as a Cyphal node over CAN-FD or serial, publishes measurements in physical SI units, and supports multiple nodes on one bus.

Large Robots

Distributed sensing

Place cameras and sensors across the body, not just where wiring is convenient.

GMSL carries camera data, power, and sensor data over one coax cable; CAN-FD and serial connect distributed sensing points.

Workflow

From plug-in to perception

01

Connect what you need

Plug in a compatible camera and sensor.

02

NXS sets it up

Drivers and communication are configured across CAN-FD, GMSL, or serial.

03

Build with real data

Stream camera and sensor data in standard physical units into your perception stack.

Connect what you needNXS sets it upBuild with real data

Get the highlights

Features for exceptional real-time scenarios

Synchronized timing

Timestamped samples and sequence data make readings from across the robot easier to align, fuse, and replay.

Auto-recovery

Signed A/B firmware, watchdog rollback, and serial recovery keep deployed nodes recoverable after failed updates or interruptions.

Scalable with a single interface

Probe, configure, stream, and inspect every connected sensor through the same commands and data model.

All the NXS-connected sensors, synced to sub-millisecond precision.

All the NXS-connected sensors, synced to sub-millisecond precision.

DEVELOPER EXPERIENCE

Connect hardware like it's Python

Simple commands that feel native to your embedded pipeline

majortom · nxs · 80×24
$nxs-tcyphal-can--portcan1probe

ecosystem

Speed up your deployments

NXS integrates with the open-source robotics technologies and standards you already use

ROS 2

NXS turns readings into ROS 2 topics on the host, so your team can use them in perception and autonomy without building a custom bridge.

Cyphal

Keep distributed sensors and cameras in sync across the robot. NXS delivers the coordinated data SLAM, obstacle avoidance, and navigation need to work reliably.

FSM:go

NXS supports FRAMOS PixelMate™ C and FSM:GO modules, giving your robot reliable image quality, flexible sensor choices, and a clear path from prototype to production-ready computer vision.

We support any camera FRAMOS supports on the PixelMate™ C interface. That includes the FSM:GO modules (integrated sensor + PixelMate) and any bare sensor (IMX335, IMX296, IMX568, etc.) mated through a FRAMOS FSA/FSM sensor adapter that exposes PixelMate С.

A tracked target arriving as a ROS 2 topic and drawing its path in RViz, beside the camera on a single cable.

A tracked target arriving as a ROS 2 topic and drawing its path in RViz, beside the camera on a single cable.

CAN connector. An automotive-grade CAN-FD transceiver with a built-in Cyphal node drops NXS straight onto your vehicle bus. One port carries 12 V power and sensor data up to 40 m, readable by stock OpenCyphal tools. Your network speaks a language your stack already understands.

GMSL connector. One coax does it all. GMSL2/3 carries multi-gigabit video, Power-over-Coax, and tunnelled I²C sensor data over a single FAKRA cable up to 15 m. Fewer cables, fewer failure points, faster builds.

External power 12 V. NXS runs on a tolerant 4.7–16 V input, so any vehicle rail or bench supply works. And when your sensor chain outgrows Power-over-Coax or GMSL/CAN delivery, the auxiliary 12 V input with a spare UART keeps everything powered without redesigning your harness.

mikroBUS socket. Instant access to 2,000+ Click boards, with SPI, I²C, UART, PWM, AN, INT, RST and 5V/3.3 V rails. The MikroE catalog of sensors and peripherals is supported; the AI-agent skill generates drivers from the datasheet. Plug in a sensor, get SI-unit data. No firmware rebuild.

Auxiliary board connector. A 30-pin expansion port brings out the full mikroBUS bus, MCU UART, and fused 5 V/3.3 V/12 V rails: an alternative path to attach external VPUs, FPGAs, or custom boards when the mikroBUS socket isn't the right fit.

STM32 sensor co-processor. The 170 MHz Cortex-M4F runs an on-device virtual machine that executes portable sensor drivers and reports results in SI units with microsecond timestamps. Swap a sensor by uploading a driver, not by reflashing firmware.

Image sensor connector. A 60-pin DF40 mezzanine connects FRAMOS-class MIPI CSI-2 cameras directly: 2 or 4 data lanes, I²C control, frame-sync triggers, and sensor power on board. Pair it with the Aliensense MIPI adapter (available separately) to extend any MIPI camera up to 15 m from your compute.

Serial / debug UART. Always reachable, always recoverable. The SWD + debug UART header gives direct programming and console access, the same always-on link that carries Cyphal management at 460800 baud. Reflash, debug, and commission in the field with nothing but a cable.

NXS hardware development environment
360° of usability

Specifications

Technical specifications

Compute

STM32G491 Cortex-M4F co-processor with driver VM

Camera

MIPI CSI-2 input, MAX96793 GMSL2/3 serializer, Power-over-Coax

Sensors

mikroBUS socket with I²C, SPI, UART, PWM, analog, INT, RST

Connectivity

GMSL2/3, CAN-FD, Cyphal/serial, I²C register map

Timing

Timestamped samples, sequence data, up to 250 Hz serial stream

Data

Physical SI-unit outputs with self-describing field metadata

Power

12 V input, 4.7 to 16 V tolerance, Power-over-Coax support

Recovery

Signed A/B firmware, watchdog rollback, serial recovery

Environment

-40 °C to +85 °C operation, ±2 kV ESD protection

Size & Weight

30 x 40 x 28 mm, 21 g, anodized aluminum housing

Configuration

Will it work with your setup?

Pick your host and the links you have. We'll email you the wiring.

Pick your host

Three links, and you can run more than one
NXSnode
Your
host 
switch on an interface above
The coax carries video and sensor data together. CAN-FD and Serial are separate connectors, and you can run several at a time. Choose a host to see which apply.

Configure your host and sensors, and we’ll send you the wiring.

Host CLI and Python SDK are published at launch: github.com/aliensense.

Full documentation, including connector pinouts, is at developer.aliensense.com/nxs.

Hardware

What's in the box

Everything you need to get started with NXS

Aliensense NXS Box Contents

  • MikroE 6DOF IMU 13 ClickMIKROE-4228

    A ready-to-test motion sensor for first readings, orientation experiments, and sensor pipeline validation.

  • NXS board

    The main connection board for cameras, sensors, CAN-FD, GMSL, and serial workflows.

  • MikroE mikroBUS ShuttleMIKROE-2882

    A simple way to connect and test mikroBUS Click sensors during prototyping.

  • Connector cable

    The cable needed to bring the setup together and start testing on the bench.

  • Honeycomb Carton Packaging

    A beautiful, engineer-friendly honeycomb paper board shell that is rugged, highly expressive, and 100% environmentally friendly.

Compliance & Standards

Designed to meet global standards

CE mark
FCC mark
RoHS Directive
WEEE Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive
FSC Forest Stewardship Council
PAP 20 Recycling Paper Symbol

Vanguard Edition

Limited batch. Numbered units.

In stock and shipping now. Allow 5-10 days in transit after dispatch, depending on destination.

What Vanguard gets you

Direct channel to the engineering team

Talk to the people who designed NXS and the others running it on autonomous vessels, AGVs, field rovers.

Priority on driver generation

Send us the sensor you need running. Vanguard requests go to the front of the queue.

First look

New features and new products before they are public.

$199per unit

Cancel any time before dispatch. Full refund, processed within one business day. Secure checkout via Stripe. Shipping is billed separately before dispatch.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about NXS: hardware, sensors, integration, ordering, and support.

It depends on the connector your host has. GMSL (deserializer): connect NXS directly over coax, up to 15 m, and you get video and sensor data on that one cable. CAN only: connect over CAN-FD, up to 40 m, sensor data in full, no video. UART only: connect Cyphal/serial at 460800 baud, sensor data only. If you want video but your host has no GMSL, you need the NXS Hub, a separate device that aggregates GMSL streams and forwards them to the host over MIPI, supplies Power-over-Coax, and protects the line from overvoltage. One Hub serves 2 NXS nodes over its two GMSL inputs, so you need one per host, not one per sensor. On the software side NXS publishes as a Cyphal node and the nxs host tool bridges it to ROS 2 topics; if you do not run ROS 2, the I²C register map over the GMSL tunnel and stock Cyphal tools both work. Technical questions before or after you buy: [email protected].

A compact node that connects any MikroElektronika Click sensor (mikroBUS) or a MIPI camera to your robot or autonomous system over a single long-distance cable. It handles the hardware interface, the driver layer and the data transport, so your team works with sensor data instead of firmware.

Same board, three modes. GMSL2/3: up to 15 m, one coax carries power, video and sensor data together, for camera plus sensor setups. CAN-FD: up to 40 m at a reduced data rate, sensor data only, no video, for sensor networks distributed across a chassis or structure. UART/serial: Cyphal over serial at 460800 baud, sensor data only, for a host that has neither a deserializer nor a CAN interface.

Yes. The two functions are independent: the video path is hardware serialization, and the sensor co-processor is firmware on the STM32 driving the mikroBUS socket. A unit can be deployed for video only, sensors only, or both. The camera side is a DF40 60-pin MIPI CSI-2 connector (2 or 4 lane), so check the mating connector on your module: an off-the-shelf camera may need an adapter board.

NXS is an evaluation and prototyping module. It is not certified for safety-critical applications, including automotive safety systems, life support or medical devices, weapons systems, or any application where a failure could lead to death, personal injury, or severe physical or environmental damage. If you integrate NXS into a product for commercial deployment, the certifications and regulatory approvals for that product are yours to obtain.

USB hits a hard wall at about 5 m, and the only fix the ecosystem offers is a shorter, better cable. NXS runs a single cable to 15 m (GMSL2/3) or 40 m (CAN-FD), with power and data on the same line.

With micro-ROS you write the firmware yourself and serial reach is about 1 m. With NXS the driver layer is pre-written (or AI-generated for a new Click board), reach is 15 m to 40 m, and the node is a standard Cyphal citizen.

Those are camera-only, and with several of them you still write the ROS 2 wrapper yourself or go through an OEM sales cycle instead of buying a board. NXS covers heterogeneous sensors (IMU, distance, environmental) and camera on one integration path, driver layer included.

A CAN-USB adapter moves CAN frames to a host and leaves the ROS 2 wrapper to you. NXS is the sensor node itself: it acquires the sensor, timestamps samples in hardware, publishes standard SI subjects and bridges to ROS 2 topics, with no wrapper to build or maintain.

NXS supports the MikroE catalog of sensors and peripherals: seat any Click board on the mikroBUS socket and upload its driver. Samples arrive in physical SI units, timestamped in hardware.

No. For any other mikroBUS Click sensor on I²C, SPI, UART, AN or PWM, the AI-agent skill generates the driver from the datasheet. A driver is a small Python class, compiled to a portable NXS image on your host and uploaded to the device, where the on-device virtual machine probes the sensor and produces fixed-size samples. Device firmware is never rebuilt, and swapping a sensor means seating the new Click board and uploading its driver image.

Both are covered. NXS publishes as a Cyphal node over CAN-FD or serial, and the nxs host tool bridges that output to ROS 2 topics with microsecond timestamps. Without ROS 2 you have two built-in paths: the I²C register map over the GMSL tunnel (samples, parameters, driver store, commissioning and firmware update all over the single coax), and OpenCyphal over CAN-FD or serial, where stock tools such as yakut and yukon work alongside ours.

Yes. Alongside the mikroBUS socket, NXS exposes an auxiliary board-to-board connector (X2, 30-pin DF40) that breaks out the MCU interfaces directly: UART (USART3), the mikroBUS signal set (SPI, I²C, UART, PWM, AN, INT, RST) and fused 5 V power. Use it for VPU or AI accelerator modules, FPGA daughterboards, or custom sensor front-ends. It speaks the same signals as the mikroBUS socket, so the driver model, host transports and nxs tooling apply unchanged. Pinout and mating-connector details are in the NXS User Datasheet.

CE EMC, FCC Part 15B (Class A), RoHS and WEEE, with current status per the product page. The compliance documents (CE DoC, RoHS, FCC) are published there alongside the NXS User Datasheet.

NXS is in stock and shipping now. Orders are dispatched in the order they come in, and after dispatch you should allow 5-10 days in transit depending on destination. Your card is charged at checkout rather than at dispatch, and we email you the shipping cost for approval separately before your unit leaves. You can cancel for a full refund at any point before it does.

One NXS node: the board in its aluminum housing, with a mikroBUS Click socket, a DF40 MIPI CSI-2 camera connector, and GMSL2/3 or CAN-FD upstream. The box also includes a MikroE 6DOF IMU 13 Click motion sensor (MIKROE-4228), a MikroE mikroBUS Shuttle (MIKROE-2882) and the connector cable, so first readings on the bench need nothing else. The software comes with it: support for the MikroE catalog of sensors and peripherals, the AI-agent skill that writes drivers for Click boards, and the nxs host CLI and Python SDK. Your unit is numbered as part of the Vanguard Edition, and the number arrives by email once your order is confirmed. The NXS Hub is a separate device and is not included at this price. The price covers the boards: shipping is billed separately before dispatch, and any import VAT or duty is collected at your destination.

Before dispatch: yes, in full, with no restocking fee and no conditions. Email [email protected] and we process it within 1 business day, and as long as your unit has not left us the window is open. After delivery: defective or non-conforming units go back within 14 days of delivery, in original condition. Other returns are accepted within 30 days, unused and in original packaging with all accessories, with a 15% restocking fee and return shipping paid by you, refunded within 10 business days of receipt and inspection. Products are sold B2B, so the 14-day consumer right of withdrawal does not apply. Start a return by emailing [email protected] with your order number and reason.

One year from delivery against defects in materials and workmanship under normal use. The remedy is repair, replacement or refund, at our option. Not covered: misuse, accident or negligence, unauthorized modification or repair, operation outside specification, improper installation, normal wear, and acts of nature. To claim, email [email protected] with your model, serial number, invoice and a description of the fault, within 30 days of finding it. We collect the faulty unit and return the repaired or replacement unit, both at our expense, and can ship the replacement first if you need it. If a unit arrives damaged, photograph the product and the packaging, keep the packaging, and email us within 48 hours of delivery: we send a replacement or a full refund including shipping.

Yes, to most countries. Standard international takes 5-10 days after dispatch and express international 2 to 5 business days. Shipping is not included in the board price: it is billed separately shortly before dispatch, at carrier cost, and we email you the exact amount for approval first, so nothing is charged without notice. Orders ship DAP, delivered at place: import duties, taxes and customs fees at the destination are yours, and we provide accurate customs documentation. Delivery dates are estimates, and risk passes on delivery to the carrier. Business customers can supply a Tax Registration Number for VAT invoicing. We cannot ship to sanctioned countries, and we comply with UAE, US and EU export control law. This page takes orders up to 12 units; for larger quantities, quotations, purchase-order terms, or educational and volume pricing, contact [email protected]. A quotation is valid for 30 days, and an order is accepted when we issue a written order confirmation or deliver the products.