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Desktop Robot

An expressive ESP32-S3 desktop companion robot with an LCD face, touch-to-pair phone control, differential drive, and piezo sound.

  • Home
  • Open source
  • arduino
  • 3D printable

Suggested by Robotheca, created by @Nicolassalazar-pro (opens in a new tab), from github.com/Nicolassalazar-pro/desktop-robot (opens in a new tab). Pinned to commit bcd3b0b (opens in a new tab).

Fork on GitHub (opens in a new tab)Download the files at this commit (.zip)
Hardware license
CERN-OHL-S-2.0 (opens in a new tab)
Software license
MIT (opens in a new tab)
Commercial use
Allowed

This repository contains executable files that Robotheca doesn't check. Only run them if you trust the creator.

Which files (10 scripts)

Photo and 3D model

This repository has no photo of the robot yet.

3D preview converted from github.com/Nicolassalazar-pro/desktop-robot at bcd3b0b, under CERN-OHL-S-2.0. View the original files from GitHub (51.0 MB) (opens in a new tab)

What it can do

Written by Robotheca from the project's documents.

  • Shows expressive eye faces with 16 moods, gaze direction, blinking, and idle wandering on a 240x280 LCD.
  • Drives on two continuous-rotation servos in a differential-drive configuration with closed-loop gyro turns and heading hold.
  • Plays mood-linked generated melodies and direct tones through a piezo buzzer.
  • Reacts to capacitive touch and pull-down gestures, including a temporary Wi-Fi softAP pairing screen with QR codes.
  • Accepts phone control over a token-gated WebSocket after joining its temporary WPA2 softAP.
  • Detects bumps, shakes, and being lifted from accelerometer signatures, and fails safe through drive leases and timers.
  • Accepts serial CLI commands over native USB for status, moods, calibration, heading, and bench measurements.
  • Has a sleep, wake, and power-button shutdown sequence with a Garage startup animation.

Bill of materials

This repository has no parts list Robotheca can read yet.

Build guide

The guide appears here as you scroll.

Guide by @Nicolassalazar-pro (README.md), under CERN-OHL-S-2.0 (hardware) and MIT (software).

More guides

Wiring and electronics

Notes written by Robotheca from the project's documents.

Main parts

  • ESP32-S3R8 controller (Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-1.69 board) with 8 MB PSRAM and 16 MB flash.
  • ST7789V2 240x280 IPS LCD driven over SPI.
  • CST816T capacitive touch controller on shared I2C.
  • QMI8658C 6-axis IMU for heading, bump, shake, and lift sensing.
  • Two MG90D continuous-rotation servos for differential drive.
  • Passive piezo buzzer for sound.
  • LiPo battery with latched board power and a separate external 5 V servo supply rail, with a buck-boost enable.

Connections

  • Touch and IMU share an I2C bus.
  • The LCD is connected over SPI at 40 MHz with a 20 px row offset.
  • Servo control pulses are generated per servo with calibrated pulse curves, and the servos are powered from the external 5 V rail.
  • The buck-boost enable (SYS_EN) must be driven HIGH early in setup() or the board can lose power.
  • Full pin assignments and power design are documented in HARDWARE.md, which is not included in the provided documents.