Róbó-Fóbó

Context

The open Robot Soccer Kit supports vision-based matches with a PC controller, camera tracking, and robots on a shared network. That stack suits competitions; day-to-day play often needs something lighter — one phone per robot, ready for a classroom or outdoor pitch.

Róbó-Fóbó keeps the published mechanics and electronics, and redesigns the control path for four independent BLE links.

Role & scope

Building four physical robots from the kit blueprints; custom ESP32 firmware with a single image and NVS identity; a Flutter companion app for joystick drive, kick, and LED colour; and the fabrication and bring-up work that turns DXFs, STLs, and Gerbers into a repeatable fleet.

Approach

Control runs over BLE GATT (Nordic UART–style), retaining the kit’s binary framing on a point-to-point link. One firmware serves all robots via robotid in NVS; collar colour persists the same way. Real hardware forced hardening — flash layout for the BLE stack, reliable kick timing from BLE callbacks, and a connect UX that stays cancelable when switching robots. Upstream CAD, PCB lineage, and kinematics remain the foundation; day-to-day use is phone teleop on the fleet.

Outcome

A four-robot fleet with phone teleop over BLE, published Android builds, and firmware adapted for field use. Mechanics and electronics still credit the Robot Soccer Kit; ongoing work is play, reliability, and the gap between open blueprints and four identical builds.