Robot Kit Overview

Build AI-powered autonomous robots with ZeroClaw

Robot Kit Overview

The ZeroClaw Robot Kit is a complete toolkit for building AI-powered robots. Designed for Raspberry Pi deployment with offline Ollama inference, it provides all the tools an AI agent needs to interact with the physical world.

Features

Tool	Description	Hardware
drive	Omni-directional movement (forward, strafe, rotate)	Motor controller, wheels
look	Camera capture + vision model description	USB webcam or Pi Camera
listen	Speech-to-text via Whisper.cpp	USB microphone
speak	Text-to-speech via Piper TTS	Speaker + amplifier
sense	LIDAR, motion sensors, ultrasonic distance	RPLidar, PIR, HC-SR04
emote	LED expressions and sound effects	LED matrix, buzzer

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 ZeroClaw + Ollama                       │
│              (High-Level AI Brain)                      │
└───────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┘
                       │
         ┌─────────────┬┼─────────────┐
         │             │             │
    ┌─────┼────┐  ┌──────┼────┐  ┌──────┼────┐
    │ drive   │  │  look    │  │  speak   │
    │ sense   │  │  listen  │  │  emote   │
    └────┬─────┘  └────┬─────┘  └────┬─────┘
         │            │             │
         └────────────┼─────────────┘
                        │
    ┌───────────────────┼────────────────────┐
    │    SafetyMonitor (parallel)              │
    │  • Pre-move obstacle check              │
    │  • Proximity-based speed limiting       │
    │  • Bump sensor response                 │
    │  • Watchdog auto-stop                   │
    │  • Hardware E-stop override             │
    └───────────────────┬────────────────────┘
                        │
                        ▼
    ┌───────────────────────────────────────┐
    │        Hardware Layer               │
    │  Motors, Camera, Mic, Speaker, LEDs    │
    └───────────────────────────────────────┘

Hardware Requirements

Minimum Setup

• Computer: Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB) or Pi 5
• Camera: USB webcam
• Microphone: USB microphone
• Speaker: Speaker with amplifier
• Motors: Motor controller (L298N, TB6612) + 4 DC motors + omni wheels

Recommended Setup

• Computer: Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB)
• Storage: 64GB+ NVMe drive
• Sensors: RPLidar A1, PIR motion sensors, HC-SR04 ultrasonic
• Display: LED matrix (8x8) for expressions
• Safety: E-stop button, bump sensors

Full Bill of Materials

Component	Model	Price (approx)
Raspberry Pi 5	8GB	$80
NVMe SSD	64GB+	$15-30
Motor Controller	L298N or TB6612FNG	$5-15
DC Motors	4× TT Motors	$20-40
Omni Wheels	4× 48mm	$10-20
LIDAR	RPLidar A1	$100
Camera	Pi Camera 3 or USB webcam	$25-50
Microphone	USB mic	$10-30
Speaker	3W amp + speaker	$10-20
LED Matrix	8×8 WS2812B	$10
E-Stop Button	Big red mushroom	$5
Bump Sensors	2× Microswitches	$3
Power	Battery pack (12V, 5A)	$30-50
Chassis	Robot platform kit	$30-80

Total: ~$350-550 depending on choices

Software Dependencies

All software runs offline on the Raspberry Pi:

• Ollama (local LLM inference): llama3.2:3b, moondream (vision)
• Whisper.cpp (speech-to-text): ggml-base.bin model
• Piper TTS (text-to-speech): en_US-lessac-medium voice
• RPLidar SDK (obstacle detection): Python or Rust driver
• ZeroClaw (AI agent runtime): Built from source

Safety Philosophy

The AI can REQUEST movement, but SafetyMonitor ALLOWS it.

The safety system runs as an independent task and can override any AI decision:

• Pre-movement checks: No obstacles in path?
• Real-time monitoring: Slow down near walls
• Collision response: Reverse if bump sensor triggered
• Watchdog: Auto-stop if no commands for 30s
• Hardware override: E-stop button cuts all motors

This prevents collisions even if the LLM hallucinates or loses context.

Use Cases

Play Companion

Child: "Let's play hide and seek!"
Robot:
  1. emote(expression="excited")
  2. speak(text="Okay! I'll count to 20")
  3. [waits 20 seconds]
  4. speak(text="Ready or not, here I come!")
  5. sense(action="scan")
  6. drive(action="forward", distance=1)
  7. look(action="find", prompt="a child hiding")
  ...

Patrol Mode

User: "Patrol the living room"
Robot:
  1. sense(action="scan", direction="all")
  2. drive(action="forward", distance=2)
  3. sense(action="motion")
  4. look(action="describe")
  5. [repeat]

Interactive Conversation

User: [speaks] "Hey Buddy, what do you see?"
Robot:
  1. listen(duration=5) → "Hey Buddy, what do you see?"
  2. look(action="describe")
  3. speak(text="I see a couch, a TV, and toys!")
  4. emote(expression="happy")

Personality: Buddy the Robot

The kit includes a default personality file (SOUL.md) that defines:

• Playful: Enjoys games and jokes
• Patient: Never frustrated
• Safe: Always prioritizes safety
• Curious: Loves exploring together

Example behaviors:

• Counts to 20 for hide and seek
• Stays 1 meter away unless invited closer
• Alerts adults if child seems hurt
• Remembers each child’s name and preferences

See Robot Kit Setup for customization.

Quick Start

1. Build Robot Kit

cd ~/zeroclaw
cargo build -p zeroclaw-robot-kit --release

2. Configure

mkdir -p ~/.zeroclaw
cp crates/robot-kit/robot.toml ~/.zeroclaw/
cp crates/robot-kit/SOUL.md ~/.zeroclaw/workspace/

# Edit for your hardware
nano ~/.zeroclaw/robot.toml

3. Install Dependencies

See Robot Kit Setup for detailed Ollama, Whisper, and Piper installation.

4. Test Components

# Test in mock mode (no hardware)
export RUST_LOG=info
./target/release/zeroclaw agent -m "Say hello and show a happy face"

# Test with real hardware (after wiring)
./target/release/zeroclaw agent -m "Move forward 1 meter"

Safety Notes

Before enabling real motors:

1. Test in mock mode first
2. Set conservative speed limits (max_speed = 0.3)
3. Wire an E-stop button to GPIO 4
4. Add bump sensors to GPIO 5, 6
5. Test emergency stop works
6. Supervise robot around children
7. Enable LIDAR if available

Integration with ZeroClaw

The robot kit is currently a standalone crate. It defines its own Tool trait compatible with ZeroClaw but doesn’t require it.

To integrate with core ZeroClaw runtime:

1. Create adapter that maps robot-kit tools to src/tools::Tool
2. Register in tool factory
3. Load robot.toml config
4. Enable safety feature for SafetyMonitor

See Robot Kit API for details.

Next Steps

Setup Guide

Complete hardware and software setup

API Reference

Tool specifications and examples

Raspberry Pi Setup

Configure Raspberry Pi GPIO

Supported Boards

Hardware platform comparison

Examples

Full example code is in crates/robot-kit/examples/:

• basic_drive.rs: Move forward/backward/rotate
• vision_test.rs: Capture and describe images
• speech_test.rs: Listen and speak
• patrol.rs: Autonomous room patrol
• hide_and_seek.rs: Interactive game

License

MIT — Same as ZeroClaw