{"id":11341,"date":"2026-08-18T05:26:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:26:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/katianie.com\/blog\/?page_id=11341"},"modified":"2026-08-18T19:26:32","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T19:26:32","slug":"robotics","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/katianie.com\/blog\/index.php\/robotics\/","title":{"rendered":"Robotics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n \"RumPi
RumPi, front on \u2014 a Raspberry Pi weather station on wheels.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I started this project back in 2023 with an idea I couldn’t shake: build a robot from the ground up that could sense its environment<\/strong>, reason about it with a bit of AI<\/strong>, and drive itself<\/strong> around. It’s a big undertaking, so I split it into three systems and set out to build them one at a time. The first \u2014 the environment-sensing system \u2014 is now complete, and I wanted to share the progress and publicly release the code I wrote to run it.<\/p>\n

The robot<\/h2>\n

At its core is a Raspberry Pi 5<\/strong> on a chassis I designed and 3D-printed in rainbow “silk” filament, so the whole thing shifts colour as you move around it. Riding up top is the sensor suite: a spinning-cup anemometer<\/strong> for wind speed, a motion detector<\/strong>, and a tower that houses the environmental sensors \u2014 temperature and humidity, particulate air quality, common gases like CO\u2082 and volatile organic compounds, light level, and barometric pressure. Inside sit the battery, the motor drivers, and the wiring loom that ties everything back to the Pi, while a small monitor on an articulated arm shows the live dashboard. (A 3D-printed pagoda and lighthouse came along for the ride \u2014 every robot deserves a little personality.)<\/p>\n

\n \"Angled
The full robot: sensors and display up top, the Pi and drivetrain below.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n
\n \"Top-down
The environmental sensor tower and wind gauge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n \"Evening
The motion sensor’s star mount, alongside the sensor cluster.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

RumPi \u2014 the sensor library<\/h2>\n

To bring all of that to life I wrote RumPi<\/strong>, a C++ library built on top of wiringPi. The idea behind it is that hardware should be described, not hard-coded<\/em>: RumPi reads a JSON manifest of what’s connected and assembles itself at runtime, so adding a sensor is a single line of configuration rather than a code change.<\/p>\n

On top of that it handles everything a robot needs to run unattended:<\/p>\n