What it is
BEMO is an open-ended robotics and AI project: a small, BMO-inspired companion device that fuses embedded electronics, custom 3D-printed enclosures, multi-modal sensors, and modern AI into a single tinkerable platform.
A Raspberry Pi 5 handles vision, voice, and AI inference. A Seeed Xiao ESP32-C6 drives expressive round and OLED displays for "eyes" and status. Environmental awareness comes from a DHT22 (temperature/humidity), an HC-SR501 PIR (motion), and a VL53L0X ToF (distance). Audio is a 3W speaker. Power is managed by a USB-C TP4056 charging module.
Why I'm building it
BEMO is equal parts robotics build, electronics sandbox, firmware project, and AI experiment -- a long-running personal R&D platform for exploring how compact AI agents can live in physical, charming, useful little machines. It's the project where I get to ask "what if the AI had eyes, or a body, or a battery" without it having to ship to anyone. Things learned here tend to escape into the other projects on this page.
Current state
Hardware platform is defined and the bench build is iterative. Sensors, displays, audio, and power are wired up; firmware and enclosure design move in parallel as new behaviors get tried out.
What's next
(Updates as new sensors, capabilities, behaviors, or 3D-printed parts come online.)