Think, Talk, Drive
Welcome to the GenAI and LLMs STEM Workshop. Over five days, you will go from unboxing your robot to having a full conversation with an AI that can see, hear, speak, and physically move.
The PiCar-X: your AI-powered robot for the week
This is a fully virtual camp. Your robot kit has been shipped to you pre-assembled with an SD card, card reader, and WiFi dongle included.
What you will build
By the end of this week, your robot will be able to:- Move on command using keyboard controls and programmed sequences
- Speak using text-to-speech, announcing its actions aloud
- Follow lines autonomously using onboard sensors
- Detect colors and faces with classical computer vision
- Hold a conversation by connecting to a large language model
- See and describe its surroundings using a vision language model
- Act on what it sees by combining vision AI with physical tool calls
Your week at a glance
1
Day 1: Setup and Calibration
Flash your SD card, connect to your robot over SSH, calibrate servos, and validate all sensors.
2
Day 2: Code & Computer Vision
Write movement programs, give the robot a voice with text-to-speech, follow lines, and detect colors.
3
Day 3: GenAI and Cloud LLMs
Learn how large language models work, connect to the OpenAI API, build a voice chatbot, and control the robot with LLM tool calls.
4
Day 4: Vision AI
Feed the robot’s camera into a vision language model so it can describe what it sees and act on visual information.
5
Day 5: AI Ethics & Final Project
Discuss AI risks and ethics, explore data privacy, build a robot reporter that tours and narrates its surroundings, and discover resources for continued learning.
Hardware overview
Your robot kit includes:Before you start
Confirm your kit contains: robot (pre-assembled), SD card, SD card reader, and WiFi dongle.