Voice Command Module

Demo video

Function introduction

Using this module, you can control the Petoi robot to do various skills through voice without using wake words. Currently, the module supports 40 fixed voice commands in two languages (English and Chinese) and ten customized commands by recording any sound clips.

NyBoard

Hardware setup

The module can be installed on NyBoard via the Grove interface.

Connecting to the NyBoard with wire as shown in the following picture, connect to the NyBoard Grove interface, which includes D8, D9:

Software setup

Petoi Desktop App

• You can use the Firmware Uploader within the Petoi Desktop App.

  

Arduino IDE

• You can use Arduino IDE to upload and modify the source code.

The module code is integrated into the OpenCat project. Uncomment the line #define VOICE in the OpenCat.ino, as shown in the figure below. Then, use Arduino IDE to upload the sketch to the robot's main board. The robot will work in Voice mode. This sketch will allow the robot to behave under voice commands.

BiBoard

Hardware setup

It is built into the BiBoard V0's extension hat as follows:

Software setup

1. Upload Firmware

• Petoi Desktop App

You can use the Firmware Uploader within the Petoi Desktop App.

Please select the correct Product type, Borard version, and Serial port. The mode should be Standard, so press the Upgrade the Firmware button. for example, Bittle, BiBoard_V0_2, COM5 as follows:

• Arduino IDE

You can use Arduino IDE to upload the sketch(OpenCatEsp32.ino).

Use the latest OpenCatESP32 code to finish the setup. For example, to modify the code for Bittle as shown below:

2. Switch mode

After uploading, the firmware is in Voice mode by default. If you need to switch, please open the serial monitor and input the serial command XA to switch to Voice mode.

Play with the voice commands.

Common use cases

When the robot is restarted, the voice module will be automatically reset to its default language setting. The robot's default language setting is English.

1. Set the default language

There are two ways to set the default language:

• Using the serial commands

  • Open the serial monitor:

    • To set the default language to English, use the command: XAa.

    • To set it to Chinese, use the command: XAb.

  • In the mobile app:

    • To set the default language to English, create a mobile app command called English and use the code: X65,97.

    • To set it to Chinese, create a mobile app command called Chinese and use the code: X65,98.

• Using the voice commands

  • To set the default language to English, you need to say the voice command "Lizheng" (phonetic) first and then say "Bing-Bing" (phonetic).

  • To set it to Chinese, you need to say the voice command "Attention" first and then say "Di-Di"(phonetic).

2. Switch the language temporarily

• To switch to English, you can say "Bing-Bing" (phonetic)

• Switch to Chinese, you can say "Di-Di" (phonetic)

3. Turn on/off the voice command functionality(audio response and robotics reaction)

To turn on

• Speak Play sound

• Create a mobile app command called "Enable voice" and use the code: X65,99

To turn off

• Speak Be quiet

• Create a mobile app command called Disable voice and use the code: X65,100

4. Use the predefined voice commands

You can refer to the list of available voice commands shown below:

See this doc for the latest version.

How to debug if the voice command doesn't work

In some cases, the voice module may not respond to your voice. Please check the following:

1. On Bittle X, the dial switch on the bottom of the BiBoard extension hat is dialed to Voice Command.

2. Say Play sound to check if the robot responds with Do-Re-Mi. Sometimes, the voice may be accidentally set to muted mode triggered by Be Quiet.

3. If the module doesn't make any sound with Play sound, say Bing-Bing to switch to English mode. You may try different tones and speeds to say Bing-Bing. The robot should respond with Switch English if not in English mode. It won't react with anything if it's already in English.

4. If the voice module still doesn't make any sound, you can try to reset it in our software tools.

Mobile app:

From version 1.2.0 of the mobile app, you can create a new button with the compound code:

^X65,99;!1000;X65,98;!1000;X65,97

To reset the voice module to English mode.

Desktop app:

From version 1.2.1, you can use the debugger tool to reset the voice module.

Debugger | Petoi Doc Center

The above steps validate that the voice module is working. It's powered separately from the motion unit and should work regardless of the robot's status.

1. Next, if you say Hello, the robot should wave its hand and validate that the complete reaction loop is good. Then, you can try other voice commands.

2. Try powering off the mainboard by disconnecting the USB data cable, long-pressing the battery's button, and then re-powering the mainboard.

If the above steps cannot fix the problem, contact [email protected] for help.

Record customized voice commands

When the robot works in English mode, you can speak Start learning (or input the serial command XAe in the serial monitor) into the custom voice command mode and record your voice commands in order.

You can record up to 10 voice commands, each with no more than six syllables.

To exit the custom voice command mode in the middle, you can speak Stop learning (or input the serial command XAf in the serial monitor).

After exiting the custom voice command mode, speak one of the recorded voice commands to trigger the reaction.

Speak Clear the learning data to delete all the recordings at once (you cannot delete a specific recording).

There are ten skill strings as custom replies already defined (but only the first five can see the actual reaction of the robot because they are predefined serial commands ) in the voice.h:

const char voice1[] PROGMEM = "T";                                    //call the last skill data sent by the Skill Composer
const char voice2[] PROGMEM = "kpu1";                                 //single-handed pushup
const char voice3[] PROGMEM = "m0 80 0 -80";                          //move head
const char voice4[] PROGMEM = "kmw";                                  //moonwalk
const char voice5[] PROGMEM = "b14,8,14,8,21,8,21,8,23,8,23,8,21,4";  //twinkle star
const char voice6[] PROGMEM = "6th";
const char voice7[] PROGMEM = "7th";
const char voice8[] PROGMEM = "8th";
const char voice9[] PROGMEM = "9th";
const char voice10[] PROGMEM = "10th";

The response actions (kpu1 means single-handed pushups, kmw means moonwalk) are already defined in the program.

Other serial commands are also supported as responses, such as joint movements(e.g. m0 80 0 -80 means shaking the head left and right) and playing a melody(e.g. b14,8,14,8,21,8,21,8,23,8,23,8,21,4)

To use these custom replies above, you need to enter the custom voice command mode, record ten voice commands (such as Single-handed Pushup, Shake Head, Moonwalk, Twinkle Star), and then exit the custom voice command mode.

If you have recorded a voice command and the corresponding custom reply is not a predefined serial command((e.g.,5th), there is no actual demonstration effect; it only prints a simple message on the serial monitor when you speak the corresponding voice command.

Advanced usage for developers

Understand the principle

1. Convert the voice command collected by the microphone in the module into a serial command.

2. Send the serial command to the mainboard MCU through the soft serial port Serial2.

3. After receiving the serial command, the MCU parses it into the corresponding skill command, and finally, the reaction module, according to the skill command, controls the robot to respond accordingly.

Upload the demo sketch testVoiceCommander.ino, and you can see every serial command that is sent to MCU(including the custom voice command if you have recorded it)

You can open the serial monitor to check the raw return values of every voice command.

The test sketch

The test sketch is in the OpenCat repository on GitHub (specific path: OpenCat/ModuleTests/testVoiceCommander). You can visit our GitHub repository https://github.com/PetoiCamp/OpenCat to download the complete code, as shown in the following picture:

Serial interface

There are seven related serial commands for configuration; you can input them into the serial monitor.

How to design new reactions

For the robot in Voice mode, to improve the utilization rate of custom voice control commands, you can modify the last six skill strings to the skill names with actual action responses.

• Using the task queue to create a sequence of motions, please refer to the source code in the voice.h as below:

if (index < 61) {
    token = raw[3];         //T_SKILL;
    shift = 4;              //3;
}
const char *cmd = raw.c_str() + shift;
tQueue->addTask(token, shift > 0 ? cmd : "", 2000);
char end = cmd[strlen(cmd) - 1];
if (!strcmp(cmd, "bk") || !strcmp(cmd, "x") || end >= 'A' && end <= 'Z' || end == 'x') {
    tQueue->addTask('k', "up");

• Using the Skill Composer and binding the customized voice command to the new skills

1. Use SkillComposer to design new skills and then export them into InstinctX.h

2. Modify voice.h to bind the customized voice command to the new skills: insert 'k'+the new skill name into the string variable（e.g.voice1[]If you want to bind the first customized voice command )

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   const char voice1[] PROGMEM = "kskill1";     // "k" is the token for skill, skill1 is the new skill name.