Arnold

RPi 4 Based Robotic Platform

Setup

• Distro download: https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/operating-systems/#raspberry-pi-os-64-bit
• Remote Access: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/remote-access/
• Headless Wifi: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/wireless/headless.md
• Configure sound: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/configuration/raspi-config.md

System Requirements

• Raspberry Pi OS Lite (Preferrable but not essential)
• Git
• Python 3.11+
• Python Virtualenv

Build Requirements

• portaudio19-dev
• python3-dev
• flac
• libespeak1
• espeak-ng
• ffmpeg
• python3-opencv
• ninja-build
• poetry (https://python-poetry.org/docs/#installing-with-the-official-installer)

Run the following command to install system dependancies

make install

Development

# Clone arnold locally
git clone git@github.com:hacklabza/arnold.git
cd arnold/

# Setup the virtualenv and install the python deps
make poetry
make deps

# Run unittest
make test

Installation

# Get the RPi's IP address
ping raspberrypi.local

# Access to the commandline over SSH
ssh pi@raspberrypi.local

# Clone and install arnold
git clone git@github.com:hacklabza/arnold.git
cd arnold/
make install
make poetry

# Run the unittests to make sure arnold is installed correctly
make test

Running arnold

Manual mode

# Initialise and run the internal API server
arnold run

Open your browser to http://192.168.1.115:8000 to control arnold.

Autonomous mode

# Initialise and run arnold in autonomous mode
arnold run -a

A rudimentary obstacle avoidance system is in place to stop arnold from running into things using lidar.

Voice command mode

# Initialise and run arnold in voice command mode
arnold run -v

Arnold will listen for voice commands and execute them based on the command mapping in arnold/constants.py. It falls back to a conversation with ChatGPT if it doesn't understand the command.