There are already commercial robot maids, like Kuri, and several toy robots, like Cozmo, which uses ESP8266 as its main SoC and was included in The Guardian’s Top 40 gadget list for 2017. However, there has hardly been any widely-known open-source DIY robot maid; at least not until Rosie came about.

Rosie the Robot Maid

Rosie is robot maid that has been recently created by DJ Harrigan, who was inspired by a character from a well-known cartoon entitled “The Jetsons”. Rosie uses Arduino and ESP8266; she is easy-to-build and is intended to take us one step closer towards DIY robots.

“The Jetsons”, a cartoon from which Rosie’s creator was inspired.

The robot is controlled over Wi-Fi communication provided by an ESP8266 development board. The device’s servomechanisms and LEDs for animatronic action and output audio are controlled by an additional Arduino MKR Zero, which is also used for outputting audio to an I2S amplifier and a speaker.

Rosie’s special effects are triggered over serial communication with the ESP8266 host. So, Rosie can turn her head and lift her arms using actuated shoulders, while her eyes can spin independently. Her mouth has a mechanism that follows the voice coming from the speaker. DJ Harrigan, the creator, also made a remote Blynk app for Rosie’s user interface.

To get all the necessary details on how to build Rosie, you can watch an informative video tutorial on YouTube.