RobotCar

NarBot

NarBot is an experimental SMARS-style robot workspace. It currently contains PlatformIO firmware for ESP32 camera/control nodes plus a KiCad PCB project.

The active firmware work is focused on getting reliable ESP32 camera streams, basic Wi-Fi setup, and simple robot-control building blocks working before adding a larger autonomous control stack.

Projects

NarbotESP

Minimal dual-camera firmware for two Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 Sense boards. The same codebase builds in two modes:

• main_esp: starts the SMARS_MAIN access point at 192.168.4.1, serves the dashboard, and streams its local camera.
• front_esp: joins SMARS_MAIN as a station, tries to use static IP 192.168.4.10, and serves its own camera stream.

Main endpoints:

• http://192.168.4.1/ - dashboard hosted by the main ESP
• /status - JSON status
• /jpg - single JPEG frame
• /stream - MJPEG stream

Default Wi-Fi credentials used by the prototype:

• SSID: SMARS_MAIN
• Password: smars1234

Build and upload:

cd NarbotESP
make compile
make upload_main
make upload_front
make monitor

Equivalent PlatformIO commands:

pio run -e main_esp -t upload
pio run -e front_esp -t upload
pio device monitor

CameraDriver

Experimental all-in-one XIAO ESP32S3 Sense firmware. This project currently contains motor-control, camera capture/streaming, setup AP, simple web UI, serial console, headlight/status LED behavior, and color-sensor code.

Hardware assumptions in the current firmware include:

• Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 Sense with camera
• DFRobot TB6612FNG motor driver
• TCS34725-compatible color sensor at I2C address 0x29

Setup AP used by the prototype:

• SSID: CameraDriver-Setup
• Password: smars1234

Build and upload:

cd CameraDriver
make compile
make upload
make monitor

NarbotPCB

KiCad PCB project for the robot electronics.

Commit these files:

• *.kicad_pro
• *.kicad_sch
• *.kicad_pcb

Local KiCad backups and project-local state are ignored by NarbotPCB/.gitignore.

ColorCalibration

Placeholder/calibration workspace. At the moment only generated PlatformIO output was present, so .pio/ is ignored there.

Repository Layout

.
├── CameraDriver/      # Experimental ESP32 camera + motor driver firmware
├── ColorCalibration/  # Calibration workspace
├── NarbotESP/         # Two-ESP camera streaming firmware
├── NarbotPCB/         # KiCad board project
└── README.md

Requirements

• PlatformIO CLI (pio)
• USB serial access to the ESP32 boards
• KiCad for the PCB project

The firmware targets ESP32 boards through PlatformIO's espressif32 platform and uses the Arduino framework.

Git Notes

Each project has its own .gitignore for generated files. Build output, downloaded PlatformIO dependencies, clangd caches, notebook scratch files, macOS metadata, and KiCad backups should stay uncommitted.

Useful status check:

git status --short --untracked-files=all

Current Milestone

The main firmware milestone is:

1. Main ESP starts the SMARS_MAIN access point.
2. Main dashboard opens at http://192.168.4.1/.
3. Main ESP camera stream is visible.
4. Front ESP connects to the main AP at 192.168.4.10.
5. Front ESP stream appears in the main dashboard.