Artur Majtczak and Maciek Matuszewski need to launch a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 (CM4) provider board with a distinction: it goals to supply broad growth for motor management, a spread of sensors, and voice management built-in with OpenAI’s ChatGPT massive language mannequin (LLM).
“SaraKIT [is] the open supply Raspberry Pi CM4 growth board that allows superior voice management and exact motor management,” Majtczak writes of the machine. “This versatile board boasts three delicate microphones, enabling sound localization for voice recognition as much as 5 meters [around 16 feet]. It additionally supplies two impartial BLDC [brushless DC] motor controllers, guaranteeing quiet, speedy, and exact motor management for varied functions, together with gimbal motors.”
The board itself features a vary of built-in {hardware}, past the aforementioned triple microphone array and motor controllers: there are two inputs for rotary encoders, which could be repurposed as general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) pins, and an STMicroelectronics LIS3DH 16-bit digital accelerometer.
The {hardware} bundle additionally options an STMicro LSM6DS3TR iNEMO six levels of freedom (6DoF) inertial measurement unit (IMU) on a breakout board dubbed the SaraKIT Hub, included as normal, and a Microchip dsPIC33 16-bit microcontroller with 32kB of static RAM (SRAM). For additional growth, there are 11 GPIO pins carrying buses together with UART, SPI, and I2C, with pulse-width modulation (PWM) assist.
The SaraKIT goals to be a one-and-done design for a variety of initiatives. For robotics, there’s the IMU and motor controller — and the Hub board consists of two MIPI Digital camera Serial Interface (CSI) ports for stereo imaginative and prescient functions.
For general-purpose electronics, there are the board’s GPIO pins and the encoder inputs, plus the LSM6DS3TR can double as a temperature sensor. For audio work, the three microphones feed right into a Microsemi ZL38063 and there are two six-watt amplifiers for output.
It is the audio aspect, although, which makes the SaraKIT stand out — as SaraAI hopes the see the board used to drive good voice assistants powered by integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT massive language mannequin. “With SaraKIT,” its creators declare, “you may construct a ChatGPT-supported machine housed in a 3D-printed casing with person face monitoring and recognition capabilities.
“Simply have a look at the digicam earlier than issuing a command,” the corporate guarantees of its creation, “and your enhanced assistant will acknowledge your intent and know you’re addressing it, making interactions extra pure and intuitive, like human dialog.”
SaraAI has launched schematics for the board, and goals to ship {hardware} to backers by late February. (📷: SaraAI)
To show its capabilities, the SaraKIT board has been used to energy a spread of demos together with a smartphone-controlled LEGO automotive and a self-balancing LEGO robotic, a gimbal-motor based mostly “silent” pan-tilt stereo digicam system, face and object detection and monitoring, a sound locator, a depth-perception stereo imaginative and prescient system, and the ChatGPT-powered SaraEye.
The SaraKIT is now crowdfunding on Crowd Provide at $99 together with the provider board itself, the Hub board, and flex cable; patrons must provide their very own Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 board. {Hardware} is anticipated to ship in late February 2024, SaraAI says, with schematics revealed to GitHub below an unspecified open supply license.