makerspet/oomwoo-io-board

This repository contains the circuit board design for OOMWOO, an open-source, 3D-printable robot vacuum you can build yourself. Specifically, it covers the "I/O board", the component that connects a central brain to all the robot's physical parts, like the motors, sensors, buttons, and battery. It is essentially the nervous system for a DIY vacuum cleaner. In a typical robot vacuum, the computing work is split in two. A main processor acts as the brain, handling high-level tasks like understanding the room layout and avoiding obstacles using cameras and a laser scanner (LiDAR). Meanwhile, a separate, simpler chip, the kind this board provides, directly controls the wheels, suction fan, and brushes. This simpler chip also acts as a safety monitor. If a motor jams and draws too much power, or if the main brain freezes, this safety chip instantly shuts everything down to prevent damage or danger. It is designed to operate independently so the robot remains safe even if the higher-level software crashes. Someone would use this project if they wanted to build or modify their own robot vacuum from scratch, rather than buying a closed, commercial product. A hobbyist could use it to create a custom cleaning robot, swapping in different sensors or motors as needed. The design is notably modular: while the board handles all the direct hardware control, it is designed to accept swappable compute modules (like a Raspberry Pi compute module). This means a builder can easily upgrade the robot's brain over time or swap in specialized chips for advanced camera-based obstacle avoidance. Right now, the project is an early-stage reference design. The creators explicitly note that the design has not been fully validated yet and should not be manufactured as-is. The board itself is designed using KiCad, an open-source circuit board design tool, and the entire project is available under a permissive open-source license that allows others to freely use and modify it.