OpenPaw — open-source pet robot with real-time spatial navigation using Auki portals(reddit.com)

I've been working on an open-source pet companion robot called OpenPaw, and wanted to share the navigation system I built for it. The hardware is an ESP32-S3 running ESP-IDF with a camera, DRV8833 motor driver, VL53L0X distance sensor, and MLX90634 temp sensor. It hosts its own WiFi AP — no cloud, no internet needed. The navigation works like this: I created virtual portals in my home using the Auki posemesh network (like GPS waypoints indoors). Each portal has X, Y, Z coordinates. A phone app built with Flutter connects to a local bridge API and loads these portals. When you scan a portal QR code with the phone's camera, the app records your position AND compass heading using the phone's magnetometer. This gives the robot both location and orientation — the two things needed for autonomous movement. The robot runs a PWM-based odometry task that estimates its position from motor commands every 50ms. A /api/pose endpoint returns real-time X, Y, and heading. A /api/trajectory endpoint logs the full path. The app shows all this on a 2D map overlay with portal markers, the robot's position, heading arrow, and traveled path updating every 500ms. The portal dropdown on the control screen lets you select any destination. The app calculates direction and distance from the robot's current position to the target in real time. The entire stack — ESP-IDF firmware, Flutter app, Auki bridge API — is open source. Build guide and schematics are documented. What navigation approaches have you used for indoor robots without GPS? I'm planning to add wheel encoders next for better accuracy. submitted by /u/Single_Gas_3063 [link] [Kommentare]