R2D2 Controller

Control a Bluetooth-enabled Freenove Pico Robot to express emotions through R2-D2 sounds. Adds physical personality to agent actions.

Core Capabilities

1. Express Emotions

Send emotion commands to trigger corresponding R2-D2 sounds:

• happy - Success beeps (task completed successfully)
• angry - Frustrated beeps (error, blocked, or denied request)
• think - Processing sounds (calculating or analyzing)
• confused - Uncertain beeps (ambiguous prompt or unclear request)

2. Stream Audio

Trigger audio playback from the configured bridge server:

• stream_audio() - Starts audio streaming from bridge

Quick Start

import asyncio
from r2d2_controller import R2D2Controller

async def main():
    bot = R2D2Controller()

    # Connect to robot
    await bot.connect()

    # Express emotion
    await bot.express("happy")

    # Stream audio (requires bridge server)
    await bot.stream_audio()

    # Disconnect when done
    await bot.disconnect()

asyncio.run(main())

Usage Strategy for Agents

Map task outcomes to emotions:

Requirements

Hardware

• Freenove Pico Robot with Bluetooth enabled
• Robot must advertise as "Pico_Agent"

Software

• Python 3.11+
• bleak library for Bluetooth LE communication
• Running bridge server (for audio streaming)

Installation

pip install bleak==0.21.1

Configuration

Device name is hardcoded in scripts/r2d2_controller.py:

DEVICE_NAME = "Pico_Agent"  # Must match Pico BLE name

Modify this constant if your robot uses a different name.

Implementation

The skill uses Nordic UART Service (NUS) over Bluetooth LE:

• Service UUID: 6E400001-B5A3-F393-E0A9-E50E24DCCA9E
• RX Characteristic (write): 6E400002-B5A3-F393-E0A9-E50E24DCCA9E
• Commands: UTF-8 encoded strings (happy, angry, think, confused, stream)

Script Reference

scripts/r2d2_controller.py

Complete Python class for robot control:

# Usage
bot = R2D2Controller()
await bot.connect()                    # Connect to robot
await bot.express("happy")             # Send emotion
await bot.stream_audio()               # Trigger audio
await bot.disconnect()                 # Clean disconnect

Methods:

• connect() - Scan and connect to robot
• disconnect() - Release Bluetooth handle
• express(mood: str) - Send emotion command
• stream_audio() - Trigger audio playback

Troubleshooting

Robot Not Found

• Ensure robot is powered on
• Verify Bluetooth is enabled on host
• Check device name matches DEVICE_NAME constant

Connection Dropped

Auto-reconnect is built-in. The controller will attempt to reconnect before sending commands.

No Sound Output

• Verify Pico speaker is connected and powered
• Check bridge server is running (for audio streaming)
• Ensure Pico has correct audio URL configured

Future Enhancements

Dynamic Audio URLs: Currently, stream_audio() plays a hardcoded URL on the Pico. Future versions will support:

await bot.stream_audio("http://bridge:5050/play?url=<tts_audio>")

This enables integration with TTS services like Runware for dynamic speech generation.