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:

Situation	Expression	When to Use
Task completed successfully	`express("happy")`	After successful execution
Error or blocked state	`express("angry")`	When encountering errors or impossibility
Processing/calculating	`express("think")`	During long operations or analysis
Ambiguous request	`express("confused")`	When prompt is unclear
Audio ready	`stream_audio()`	When TTS audio is queued on bridge

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.

r2d2-controller