Tip: click into the slides and use the arrow keys to navigate, or hit the fullscreen button for the best experience.

What the talk covers​

• The problem — turning a spoken sentence into a precise, exact-distance robot motion in real time
• Voice in — Amazon Nova 2 Sonic bidirectional streaming with forced tool use as a "robot controller"
• Commands down — browser → AWS IoT Core MQTT publish via temporary Cognito credentials, no backend
• The edge — a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-S3 bridging WiFi/MQTT to the Sphero RVR's UART SDK
• Maneuver framework — locator-based distance and IMU-based turn, both running on the device, so "1 metre" actually means 1 metre
• Telemetry up — an AWS CDK stack tying IoT Rule → Lambda → AppSync → DynamoDB → live GraphQL subscription back into the React UI

The three repos behind the demo​

• arduino-aws-iot — ESP32-S3 firmware. The talk focuses on the sphero_rvr device group, including the new maneuver executor (forward, reverse, turn, cancel) layered on top of the existing drive D-pad.
• cdk-iot-sphero-rvr-streaming — AWS CDK stack that filters the RVR telemetry MQTT topic, flattens the nested payload in Lambda, and forwards it as a GraphQL mutation to an Amplify-managed AppSync API.
• amplify-react-nova-sonic-voice-chat-sphero-rvr — React + AWS Amplify Gen 2 frontend. The same Cognito identity is used for Bedrock streaming, IoT publish, and the AppSync subscription that surfaces live telemetry.

Related deep-dive posts​

If you want background on the building blocks before the talk:

1. Sphero RVR with AWS IoT Core on a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-S3
2. Real-Time Voice Chat with Amazon Nova Sonic, React and AWS Amplify Gen 2

Thanks​

Big thanks to the AWS User Group Wellington organisers and everyone who came along — happy to chat about any of the code, the maneuver framework, or where the project goes next.

Driving a Sphero RVR with your voice​

Nova 2 Sonic · Bedrock · IoT Core · AppSync · Amplify Gen 2 · CDK

Chiwai Chan — AWS User Group Wellington meet-up 26 May 2026

Who am I?​

Tinkerer · Cloud · IoT · Robotics · Generative AI​

https://chiwaichan.co.nz https://x.com/chiwaichanconz https://github.com/chiwaichan

What are we building?​

• Speak into a browser microphone
• Amazon Nova 2 Sonic turns speech into a structured tool call
• Tool call is published to AWS IoT Core as an MQTT command
• A Sphero RVR receives it and drives
• Live telemetry streams back into the browser in real time

Voice → Cloud → Robot → Telemetry → Voice loop

Why a Sphero RVR?​

• Off-the-shelf programmable robot with a well-documented UART protocol
• I ported the Sphero RVR SDK into the ESP32-S3 firmware myself
• Onboard locator (X/Y in metres) and IMU (yaw in degrees)

The three repos behind the demo​

• ESP32-S3 firmware — the sphero_rvr device group, extracted into a dedicated public repo: platformio-aws-iot-seeed-studio-esp32s3-sphero-rvr
• cdk-iot-sphero-rvr-streaming — CDK stack: IoT Rule → Lambda → AppSync
• amplify-react-nova-sonic-voice-chat-sphero-rvr — React + Amplify Gen 2 frontend

One device group. One streaming pipeline. One serverless web app.

Voice in: Nova 2 Sonic as a robot controller​

Amazon Nova 2 Sonic on Amazon Bedrock — bidirectional stream straight from the browser.

• Not a chatbot — a tool dispatcher
• toolChoice: { any: {} } forces a tool call on every utterance
• 5 tools, one per active firmware verb

The 5 tools (mirror the firmware MQTT commands)​

"go forward 1 metre" → forward(distance_m: 1.0) → MQTT publish.

Browser → Bedrock direct (no backend)​

• React + AWS Amplify Gen 2 in the browser
• Amazon Cognito User Pool + Identity Pool gives temporary AWS credentials
• IAM policy scoped to amazon.nova-2-sonic-v1:0 and the RVR MQTT topic
• InvokeModelWithBidirectionalStreamCommand over HTTPS / TLS 1.2+
• No EC2, no containers, no Lambda in the voice path

Browser → AWS IoT Core (commands down)​

• Same temporary creds are also scoped for iot:Publish
• Frontend publishes via IoTDataPlaneClient to: the-project/sphero-rvr/XIAOSpheroRVR/action
• Cognito identity gets an AWS IoT Core policy attached at first publish
• Decouples the browser from the robot — robot can be anywhere on the internet

The edge: XIAO ESP32-S3​

• Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-S3 on the Expansion Board
• UART bridge between WiFi/MQTT and the RVR's SDK protocol
• Subscribes to the RVR's command topic over MQTT/TLS
• Publishes telemetry to the-project/sphero-rvr/XIAOSpheroRVR/state
• OLED display for "is it alive?" at-a-glance status

The Sphero RVR — what's on board​

• Two internal processors (Nordic + ST) talking over UART
• IMU (pitch / roll / yaw), accelerometer, gyroscope
• Wheel encoders, locator (X / Y in metres), velocity, speed
• Color sensor, ambient light, compass / magnetometer
• Motor thermal protection, stall detection, gyro-max collision events
• Battery state with change notifications

forward / reverse — drive an exact distance​

// On start: snapshot start_xy + lock current heading
LocatorData loc = rvr.getLocator();
_start_x = loc.x;  _start_y = loc.y;
rvr.driveWithHeading(_speed, heading, reverseFlag);

// Every tick: stop when traveled distance >= target
float dx = loc.x - _start_x, dy = loc.y - _start_y;
_traveled = sqrtf(dx*dx + dy*dy);
if (_traveled >= _distance_m) { rvr.driveStop(); return DONE; }

"Drive forward 1 metre" actually means 1 metre, not "1 second-ish".

turn — rotate an exact number of degrees​

// Accumulate signed yaw delta, normalised across the ±180° wrap
float delta = yaw - _lastYaw;
while (delta >  180.0f) delta -= 360.0f;
while (delta < -180.0f) delta += 360.0f;
_accumulated += (_degrees > 0) ? delta : -delta;
if (_accumulated >= _target) { driveStop(); return DONE; }

• Signed degrees: positive = CW, negative = CCW
• Multi-revolution allowed (degrees: 720 = two spins right)
• "u-turn" / "spin around" handled by the model, not the firmware

Telemetry up: IoT Rule → Lambda → AppSync​

• RVR publishes nested JSON to the-project/sphero-rvr/+/state
• AWS IoT Rule SQL: SELECT *, topic(3) AS device_name FROM ...
• AWS Lambda flattens it for GraphQL:
  • imu.pitch → imuPitch
  • motors.left_temp_c → motorLeftTempC
• AWS AppSync runs the createRVRState mutation
• AppSync auto-persists to Amazon DynamoDB and pushes via subscription

Live telemetry in the browser​

• Same React app uses AWS Amplify generateClient()
• Subscribes to onCreateRVRState GraphQL subscription
• Every MQTT telemetry frame from the RVR appears in the UI within ~hundreds of ms
• Battery · IMU · motors · position · compass · light · color — all live

Voice in, MQTT out, GraphQL back — all on one Cognito identity.

Live demo​

🎤 → ☁️ → 🤖 → 📊

(Fingers crossed.)

Thank you! — Questions?

Related write-ups: Sphero RVR + AWS IoT Core on XIAO ESP32-S3 · Real-time voice chat with Nova Sonic + Amplify

https://chiwaichan.co.nz

https://x.com/chiwaichanconz

https://github.com/chiwaichan

Tip: click into the slides and use the arrow keys to navigate, or hit the fullscreen button for the best experience.

What the talk covers​

• The problem — bridging spoken language and ASL fingerspelling in real time, end-to-end
• Voice in — Amazon Nova 2 Sonic bidirectional streaming as a "dumb" speech-to-text relay with forced tool use
• Cloud glue — AWS IoT Core MQTT, AppSync subscriptions, and an AWS CDK stack tying it all together
• Edge AI agent — a Strands Agent on an NVIDIA Jetson translating sentences into servo commands
• The hand — driving the Pollen Robotics Amazing Hand for ASL fingerspelling
• Lessons learned — latency, reliability, and what I'd do differently

Related deep-dive posts​

If you want to go deeper than the slides allow, the full three-part write-up lives here:

1. Part 1 — Frontend and Voice Processing
2. Part 2 — Cloud Infrastructure (IoT, AppSync, CDK)
3. Part 3 — Edge AI Agent (Strands, NVIDIA Jetson, Amazing Hand)

Thanks​

Big thanks to the AWS User Group organisers and everyone who came along — happy to chat about any of this, the code, or where it goes next.

Fingerspelling American Sign Language​

Nova 2 Sonic · Bedrock · IoT Core · AppSync · Strands

Chiwai Chan — AWS User Group Wellington meet-up 29 April 2026

Who am I?​

Tinkerer · Cloud · IoT · Robotics · Generative AI​

https://chiwaichan.co.nz https://x.com/chiwaichanconz https://github.com/chiwaichan

What are we building?​

• Speak into a browser microphone
• Cloud cleans + relays the text
• An edge agent on an NVIDIA Jetson translates it
• A robotic hand fingerspells it in ASL — in real time

Voice → Cloud → Edge AI → Robot hand

Why fingerspelling?​

• ASL fingerspelling is a constrained, well-defined target
• One letter ≈ one hand pose — perfect for a 4-finger robotic hand
• Builds a foundation for richer signs later
• Real accessibility use cases

Voice in: Nova 2 Sonic as a "dumb relay"​

Amazon Nova 2 Sonic on Amazon Bedrock.

• Not used as a chatbot
• Forced tool use via Bedrock's tool API: toolChoice: { any: {} }
• Every utterance fires send_text with cleaned-up text
• Removes filler ("um", "uh"), fixes grammar
• Translates non-English speech to English

Why MQTT in the middle?​

• Decouples the browser from the robot
• AWS IoT Core handles auth, fan-out, retained messages
• Fan-out to the browser via AWS Lambda → AWS AppSync subscriptions
• Edge device can be anywhere on the internet
• Same pattern scales to many hands / many speakers

The edge agent (NVIDIA Jetson)​

• Strands Agent powered by Amazon Nova 2 Lite (Amazon Bedrock)
• Subscribes to the sentence MQTT topic
• Tools: split sentence → letters → servo poses
• Streams video + state back via AWS IoT Core

The robot hand​

• Pollen Robotics Amazing Hand
• Open-source, manufactured by Seeed Studio
• 4 fingers, multiple servos per finger
• Custom calibration per ASL letter

Live demo​

🎤 → ☁️ → 🤖 ✋

(Fingers crossed.)

Latency: where the time goes​

Measured from New Zealand → AWS us-east-1.

• Browser → Nova 2 Sonic (Bedrock): sub-second to first token
• Nova → MQTT publish: ~tens of ms
• MQTT → Jetson: ~tens of ms
• Letter pose → next letter: paced for legibility, not speed

Bottleneck is physical movement, not the cloud.

What surprised me​

• Bedrock's forced tool use is a great "shape the output" trick
• AWS IoT Core + AppSync gives you real-time UI almost for free
• Servo calibration is the hardest part 😅
• Nova 2 Sonic handles accents and code-switching well

What's next​

• More signs beyond fingerspelling
• Two-handed signing
• On-device speech for offline mode
• Attach the Amazing Hand to my LeRobot SO-101 arms
• Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models on the Jetson Thor

Thank you! — Questions?

Blog series: Part 1 — Frontend & Voice · Part 2 — Cloud Infrastructure · Part 3 — Edge AI Agent

https://chiwaichan.co.nz

https://x.com/chiwaichanconz

https://github.com/chiwaichan

This is Part 3 of a 3-part series covering a real-time voice-to-sign-language translation system. In Part 1, I covered the React frontend that captures speech, processes it with Amazon Nova 2 Sonic, and publishes cleaned sentence text via MQTT. In Part 2, I covered the AWS CDK stack that routes IoT Core messages through Lambda to AppSync for real-time GraphQL subscriptions.

This post covers the final piece — the edge AI agent that actually makes the physical hand move. It is a Strands Agent running on an NVIDIA Jetson that subscribes to MQTT commands from the frontend, uses Amazon Nova 2 Lite to invoke the fingerspell tool, drives the Pollen Robotics Amazing Hand's Feetech SCS0009 servos for ASL fingerspelling letter by letter, records video of the hand in action, uploads it to S3, and publishes hand state back to IoT Core — which Part 2's infrastructure routes through to the frontend via AppSync.

The three repositories in the series:

1. Part 1 - Frontend and Voice Processing (amplify-react-nova-sonic-voice-chat-amazing-hand) — React web app that captures speech, streams to Nova 2 Sonic, publishes cleaned sentence text via MQTT
2. Part 2 - Cloud Infrastructure (cdk-iot-amazing-hand-streaming) — AWS CDK stack that routes IoT Core messages through Lambda to AppSync
3. This post (Part 3) - Edge AI Agent (strands-agents-amazing-hands) — Strands Agent powered by Amazon Nova 2 Lite on NVIDIA Jetson that translates sentence text to ASL servo commands, drives the Amazing Hand, and publishes state back

Goals

• Receive MQTT commands from the React frontend (plain text or JSON with sentence field) and drive the Amazing Hand servos for ASL fingerspelling
• Use the Strands Agents framework with Amazon Nova 2 Lite (us.amazon.nova-2-lite-v1:0) to invoke the fingerspell tool — the LLM passes the incoming text verbatim to the tool for letter-by-letter ASL spelling
• Fingerspell text using the 26-letter ASL alphabet (A-Z), with each letter held for 0.8 seconds and spaces adding a 0.4-second pause
• Control 8 Feetech SCS0009 servos (4 fingers x 2 joints) on the Pollen Robotics Amazing Hand via serial bus at 1M baud using the rustypot library
• Record video of the hand via OpenCV during each fingerspelling sequence, encode to H.264 MP4 via imageio-ffmpeg, upload to S3, and include a presigned URL in the state message
• Publish real-time hand state (servo angles, letter, video URL) to IoT Core over MQTT — which Part 2's CDK stack routes to AppSync for the frontend to consume
• Authenticate to AWS IoT Core using mTLS with X.509 device certificates
• Create a fresh agent instance per MQTT message to prevent conversation history accumulation and unbounded token growth
• Handle graceful shutdown with servo torque disable on SIGINT/SIGTERM

The Overall System

This diagram shows the complete end-to-end system. Part 3 is the edge device highlighted on the right — the NVIDIA Jetson running the Strands Agent that controls the Amazing Hand.

How Part 3 fits in:

• Part 1 (Frontend) publishes cleaned sentence text to the-project/robotic-hand/{deviceName}/action via MQTT
• Part 3 (This agent) subscribes to the /action topic, processes the command through the Strands Agent, drives the servos, records video, and publishes state back to /state
• Part 2 (Infrastructure) picks up the /state messages and routes them through Lambda to AppSync, where the frontend receives them via GraphQL subscriptions

Architecture

The agent is a Python application built on the Strands Agents framework. It runs as a long-lived MQTT listener on the NVIDIA Jetson, creating a fresh agent instance for each incoming message to keep memory bounded.

Agent Architecture​

Components:

• MQTT Listener (agent.py) — Subscribes to the action topic, parses incoming messages (plain text or JSON), and submits each action to a single-threaded agent executor to keep the AWS CRT MQTT event loop free
• Strands Agent — A fresh Agent instance created per message with Amazon Nova 2 Lite as the model, the fingerspell tool as the available action, and a MaxToolCallsHook (limit 3) to prevent runaway tool-call loops
• Fingerspell Tool (hand_control.py) — A @tool decorated function that the LLM invokes to spell text letter-by-letter using the 26-letter ASL alphabet
• Servo Controller — Uses rustypot.Scs0009PyController to communicate with 8 Feetech SCS0009 servos over serial at 1M baud. Each finger has two servos controlled by dedicated move functions (Move_Index, Move_Middle, Move_Ring, Move_Thumb)
• Video Recorder (video_recorder.py) — Background daemon thread captures frames via OpenCV, encodes to H.264 MP4 via imageio-ffmpeg, uploads to S3, and returns a presigned URL (1-hour expiry)
• State Publisher — Non-blocking MQTT publisher on a separate thread that sends hand state (finger angles, letter, video URL) to the /state topic with QoS 1

Data Flow​

Interactive Sequence Diagram​

How it works

MQTT Command Reception​

The agent subscribes to an MQTT action topic (e.g. the-project/robotic-hand/XIAOAmazingHandRight/action) using mTLS authentication with X.509 device certificates. The first connection uses clean_session=True to flush any stale session state, then reconnects with clean_session=False for normal operation.

When a message arrives, the handler tries to parse it as JSON and extract the sentence field. If JSON parsing fails, it treats the entire payload as plain text. The action is then submitted to a single-threaded executor (agent_executor) to keep the AWS CRT MQTT event loop free:

def on_message(topic, payload, dup, qos, retain, **kwargs):
    payload_str = payload.decode("utf-8")
    try:
        data = json.loads(payload_str)
        action = data.get("sentence", payload_str)
    except json.JSONDecodeError:
        action = payload_str
    agent_executor.submit(_process_action, action)

Strands Agent and Amazon Nova 2 Lite​

The Strands Agents framework provides the core AI reasoning loop. A fresh agent instance is created for every MQTT message — this is deliberate to prevent conversation history from accumulating across messages, which would cause unbounded token growth over time.

The agent uses Amazon Nova 2 Lite (us.amazon.nova-2-lite-v1:0) via the Bedrock Converse API. Nova 2 Lite was chosen for its low-latency tool-use responses, which is critical for real-time servo control. The agent is configured with a MaxToolCallsHook that cancels tool calls beyond 3 to prevent infinite LLM tool-call loops.

The agent runs in fingerspell-only mode — only the fingerspell tool is available. The system prompt instructs the LLM to pass the entire message verbatim to the fingerspell tool without shortening or modifying it. State messages include a letter field identifying the current ASL letter being signed.

Servo Hardware and Control​

The Amazing Hand — an open-source robotic hand designed by Pollen Robotics and manufactured by Seeed Studio — has 4 fingers (index, middle, ring, thumb — no pinky) with 2 Feetech SCS0009 servos per finger (8 servos total) connected via a Waveshare driver board over serial USB at 1,000,000 baud.

Each servo has an angle range of -90 to +90 degrees. Per-servo calibration offsets (MiddlePos) are applied during move operations to account for physical alignment:

MiddlePos = [-17, 8, -16, -4, -12, 10, -9, 9]

The control sequence for each finger:

1. Set goal speed for both servos (write_goal_speed) with a 0.2ms sleep between each speed write for serial bus timing
2. Convert angle to radians with calibration offset: np.deg2rad(MiddlePos[i] + angle)
3. Set goal position for both servos (write_goal_position)
4. 5ms sleep after positions are set before the next finger's commands

ASL Fingerspelling Tool​

The fingerspell(text) tool is decorated with @tool from the Strands framework, making it callable by the LLM during inference. It spells text letter-by-letter using the ASL alphabet. Each of the 26 letters (A-Z) is mapped to servo angle tuples for all 4 fingers. Each letter is held for 0.8 seconds, spaces add a 0.4-second pause, and non-letter characters are skipped. A state message with the current letter field is published after each letter.

Since the Amazing Hand has no pinky finger, ASL letters that require a pinky use the ring finger instead.

Video Recording Pipeline​

Video is recorded concurrently with each fingerspelling sequence:

1. Start recording — Before the agent is invoked, start_recording() launches a background daemon thread (video-capture) that captures frames from OpenCV VideoCapture(0) at the camera's native FPS (typically 30)
2. Stop and encode — After the agent completes, stop_recording_and_upload() stops the capture thread, converts frames from BGR (OpenCV) to RGB, and encodes to H.264 MP4 using imageio.v3 with the libx264 codec. The temp file is named hand_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS_
3. Upload to S3 — The MP4 is uploaded to the configured S3 bucket (default: cc-amazing-video) with key videos/hand_YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS.mp4
4. Presigned URL — A presigned URL is generated with 1-hour expiry and appended to the last state message, which is re-published to the /state topic

State Publishing​

After each servo movement, the tool publishes a state message to the MQTT /state topic (e.g. the-project/robotic-hand/XIAOAmazingHandRight/state) with QoS 1. Publishing is non-blocking — it submits to a dedicated _publish_executor thread to avoid blocking the servo tool.

The state payload:

{
  "gesture": "fingerspell",
  "letter": "E",
  "ts": 1770550850,
  "fingers": {
    "index":  { "angle_1": 45, "angle_2": -45 },
    "middle": { "angle_1": 45, "angle_2": -45 },
    "ring":   { "angle_1": 45, "angle_2": -45 },
    "thumb":  { "angle_1": 60, "angle_2": -60 }
  },
  "video_url": "https://cc-amazing-video.s3.amazonaws.com/videos/hand_20260228.mp4?..."
}

The last published state is cached so that publish_state_with_video_url() can re-publish it with the presigned URL appended after video upload completes — without needing to re-read servo angles.

This state payload is what Part 2's CDK stack picks up via the IoT Rule, flattens in Lambda, and pushes into AppSync for the frontend to consume.

Threading Model​

The agent uses two thread pools and a daemon thread to keep operations non-blocking:

Graceful Shutdown​

On SIGINT or SIGTERM, the agent:

1. Sets a stop event to exit the main loop
2. Disables servo torque (write_torque_enable(1, 2)) to release the servos and prevent power draw
3. Disconnects from MQTT
4. Logs completion

Technical Challenges & Solutions

Challenge 1: Conversation History Bloat​

Problem: Strands Agents maintain conversation history by default. Over time, as hundreds of MQTT messages are processed, the token count grows unboundedly, increasing latency and cost.

Solution: A fresh Agent instance is created for every MQTT message. This discards all prior conversation history, keeping each invocation lightweight. Token usage (input, output, total) is logged after each invocation for monitoring.

Challenge 2: Runaway Tool-Call Loops​

Problem: The LLM might enter a loop of calling tools repeatedly — for example, calling fingerspell then deciding to call it again with modified text, then again.

Solution: A custom MaxToolCallsHook implementing the Strands HookProvider interface. It counts tool calls per agent invocation and cancels any tool call beyond the limit of 3. This is injected into the agent via hooks=[MaxToolCallsHook()].

Challenge 3: No Pinky Finger on the Amazing Hand​

Problem: The Pollen Robotics Amazing Hand has only 4 fingers (index, middle, ring, thumb) — no pinky. Several ASL letters require specific pinky positions (e.g. I, J, Y).

Solution: ASL letters that require a pinky use the ring finger instead. The 26-letter ASL alphabet is manually mapped to 4-finger servo angle tuples, approximating the correct hand shape with the available fingers.

Challenge 4: Serial Bus Timing​

Problem: Sending servo commands too quickly over the serial bus causes missed commands or erratic movement. The Feetech SCS0009 protocol requires time between operations.

Solution: A 0.2ms sleep is inserted between speed writes, and a 5ms sleep is added after both goal positions are set, giving the serial bus time to process each command before the next finger's sequence begins.

Getting Started

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/chiwaichan/strands-agents-amazing-hands

Prerequisites​

• NVIDIA Jetson (AGX Thor or Orin Nano Super) with Python 3.10+
• Pollen Robotics Amazing Hand connected via USB serial (Waveshare driver board)
• AWS IoT Core device certificates (certificate, private key, root CA)
• Amazon Bedrock access enabled for Nova 2 Lite in us-east-1
• USB camera connected to the Jetson
• S3 bucket for video storage (default: cc-amazing-video)

Installation​

git clone https://github.com/chiwaichan/strands-agents-amazing-hands.git
cd strands-agents-amazing-hands
pip install -e .

Running the Agent​

amazing-hand-agent \
  --endpoint your-iot-endpoint.iot.us-east-1.amazonaws.com \
  --cert certs/device.pem.crt \
  --key certs/device.pem.key \
  --ca certs/AmazonRootCA1.pem \
  --topic the-project/robotic-hand/XIAOAmazingHandRight/action \
  --serial-port /dev/amazing-hand-right \
  --s3-bucket cc-amazing-video

The agent will connect to IoT Core, subscribe to the action topic, and wait for commands. When a message arrives, it will process it through the Strands Agent, drive the servos, record video, and publish state back.

Summary

This post covered the edge AI agent — the final piece of the voice-to-sign-language translation system:

• Strands Agents framework with Amazon Nova 2 Lite for tool-use — a fresh agent per MQTT message prevents history bloat, with MaxToolCallsHook limiting calls to 3
• ASL fingerspelling with the 26-letter alphabet (A-Z), each letter held for 0.8 seconds — the fingerspell tool is decorated with @tool for LLM invocation
• 8 Feetech SCS0009 servos on 4 fingers controlled via rustypot over serial at 1M baud, with per-servo calibration offsets
• Video pipeline captures via OpenCV in a background daemon thread, encodes to H.264 MP4 via imageio-ffmpeg, uploads to S3, and includes a 1-hour presigned URL in the final state message
• Non-blocking threading with 2 thread pools (agent executor off MQTT event loop, state publisher) and a daemon thread for video capture
• Real-time state publishing to IoT Core after every servo movement — which Part 2's CDK stack routes through Lambda to AppSync, completing the feedback loop to the React frontend in Part 1
• Graceful shutdown disables servo torque on SIGINT/SIGTERM to release the servos and prevent power draw

This is Part 2 of a 3-part series covering a real-time voice-to-sign-language translation system. In Part 1, I covered the React frontend that captures speech, processes it with Amazon Nova 2 Sonic, and publishes cleaned sentence text via MQTT. But there is a missing piece — how does the frontend know what the physical hand is actually doing?

The answer is this repository: a small but critical AWS CDK stack that acts as the bridge between the edge device and the React frontend. It routes real-time hand state data from IoT Core to AppSync, enabling the frontend to receive live updates via GraphQL subscriptions — so the 3D hand animation stays synchronised with the physical Amazing Hand — an open-source robotic hand designed by Pollen Robotics and manufactured by Seeed Studio.

The three repositories in the series:

1. Part 1 - Frontend and Voice Processing (amplify-react-nova-sonic-voice-chat-amazing-hand) — React web app that captures speech, streams to Nova 2 Sonic, publishes cleaned sentence text via MQTT
2. This post (Part 2) - Cloud Infrastructure (cdk-iot-amazing-hand-streaming) — AWS CDK stack that routes IoT Core messages through Lambda to AppSync for real-time GraphQL subscriptions
3. Part 3 - Edge AI Agent (strands-agents-amazing-hands) — Strands Agent powered by Amazon Nova 2 Lite on NVIDIA Jetson that translates sentence text to ASL servo commands, drives the Amazing Hand, and publishes state back

Goals

• Route real-time hand state data from IoT Core MQTT to AppSync using an IoT Rules Engine SQL query and Lambda
• Flatten nested MQTT finger angle payloads into a flat GraphQL schema for the createHandState mutation
• Enable the React frontend to receive live hand state updates via AppSync onCreateHandState GraphQL subscriptions
• Extract the device name dynamically from the MQTT topic path using topic(3) in the IoT Rule SQL
• Define all infrastructure as code using AWS CDK in TypeScript
• Integrate with the existing Amplify Gen 2 managed AppSync API and DynamoDB table from Part 1

The Overall System

This diagram shows the complete end-to-end system. Part 2 is the infrastructure highlighted in the middle — the IoT Rule, Lambda, and AppSync connection that enables real-time state feedback from the edge device back to the frontend.

How Part 2 fits in:

• Part 1 (Frontend) publishes cleaned sentence text to the-project/robotic-hand/{deviceName}/action and subscribes to AppSync onCreateHandState for live updates
• Part 3 (Edge Device) receives sentence text, translates it to ASL servo commands via the Strands Agent powered by Amazon Nova 2 Lite, drives the Amazing Hand, and publishes state back to the-project/robotic-hand/{deviceName}/state
• Part 2 (This stack) listens on the /state topic, transforms the payload, and pushes it into AppSync — completing the real-time feedback loop

Architecture

The stack is intentionally small — a single IoT Rule, a single Lambda function, and the IAM glue to connect them. The AppSync API and DynamoDB table are managed by the Amplify Gen 2 backend in Part 1, so this stack only needs to call the existing createHandState mutation.

Infrastructure Overview​

Resources created by this CDK stack:

• IoT Topic Rule (AmazingHandStateStreamingRule) — Matches MQTT messages on the-project/robotic-hand/+/state using SQL SELECT gesture, letter, ts, fingers, video_url, topic(3) AS device_name, then invokes the Lambda function
• Lambda Function (AmazingHandToAppSyncFunction) — Node.js 18 function that receives the IoT event, flattens the nested fingers object into individual angle fields, and calls the AppSync createHandState GraphQL mutation using the Amplify v6 SDK with API Key authentication
• Lambda IAM Role — Service role with AWSLambdaBasicExecutionRole for CloudWatch Logs and an inline policy granting appsync:GraphQL on the AppSync API
• Lambda Permission — Allows the IoT service (iot.amazonaws.com) to invoke the Lambda function

Resources managed externally (by Amplify Gen 2 in Part 1):

• AppSync API — GraphQL API with HandState model, createHandState mutation, and onCreateHandState subscription
• DynamoDB Table — HandState table with auto-generated resolvers from the @model directive

Data Flow​

Interactive Sequence Diagram​

How it works

IoT Rules Engine SQL Query​

The IoT Rule is the entry point. It listens on the MQTT topic pattern the-project/robotic-hand/+/state where + is a single-level wildcard matching any device name (e.g. XIAOAmazingHandRight).

The SQL query (using AWS IoT SQL version 2016-03-23) selects specific fields from the MQTT payload and enriches them with metadata extracted from the topic path:

SELECT gesture, letter, ts, fingers, video_url, topic(3) AS device_name
FROM 'the-project/robotic-hand/+/state'

• gesture — The type of sign being performed (e.g. "fingerspell")
• letter — The current letter being signed (e.g. "E")
• ts — Unix timestamp in seconds
• fingers — Nested JSON object containing servo angles for all four fingers, each with two joint angles
• video_url — Optional pre-signed S3 URL for video of the hand in action
• topic(3) AS device_name — Extracts the 3rd segment of the MQTT topic path as the device name, so the Lambda does not need to parse the topic itself

MQTT Payload Format​

The edge device publishes hand state messages in this format:

{
  "gesture": "fingerspell",
  "letter": "E",
  "ts": 1770550850,
  "fingers": {
    "index": { "angle_1": 45, "angle_2": -45 },
    "middle": { "angle_1": 45, "angle_2": -45 },
    "ring": { "angle_1": 45, "angle_2": -45 },
    "thumb": { "angle_1": 60, "angle_2": -60 }
  },
  "video_url": "https://cc-amazing-video.s3.amazonaws.com/videos/hand_20260228.mp4?..."
}

The fingers object uses a nested structure with angle_1 and angle_2 per finger — representing the two joints of each finger on the Amazing Hand. This nested format is natural for the edge device to produce but needs to be flattened for the GraphQL schema.

Lambda Function — Payload Transformation​

The Lambda function (AmazingHandToAppSyncFunction) receives the IoT event with the enriched fields from the SQL query. Its job is to:

1. Validate that the device_name field exists (required for the GraphQL mutation)
2. Flatten the nested fingers object into individual angle fields:

3. Default missing angle values to 0, missing gesture/letter/videoUrl to null, and missing timestamp to Math.floor(Date.now() / 1000)
4. Call AppSync createHandState mutation using the Amplify v6 SDK configured with API Key authentication

The Lambda uses the Amplify v6 SDK (aws-amplify@^6.0.0) to call AppSync, configured via environment variables:

Amplify.configure({
  API: {
    GraphQL: {
      endpoint: process.env.APPSYNC_API_URL,
      region: process.env.AWS_REGION,
      defaultAuthMode: 'apiKey',
      apiKey: process.env.APPSYNC_API_KEY
    }
  }
});

GraphQL Mutation​

The Lambda calls this mutation to persist the hand state and trigger the real-time subscription:

mutation CreateHandState($input: CreateHandStateInput!) {
  createHandState(input: $input) {
    id
    deviceName
    gesture
    letter
    indexAngle1
    indexAngle2
    middleAngle1
    middleAngle2
    ringAngle1
    ringAngle2
    thumbAngle1
    thumbAngle2
    timestamp
    videoUrl
    createdAt
  }
}

When AppSync receives this mutation, two things happen:

1. The hand state record is persisted to DynamoDB via the auto-generated @model resolver
2. The onCreateHandState subscription is triggered, pushing the new record to all subscribed clients — including the React frontend from Part 1, which uses this data to update the 3D hand animation, signed letter history, and video feed in real-time

CDK Stack Definition​

The entire stack is defined in approximately 74 lines of TypeScript. The stack accepts the AppSync API URL, API key, and API ID as props, which are injected via environment variables during deployment:

interface IoTStreamingStackProps extends cdk.StackProps {
  appSyncApiUrl: string;
  appSyncApiKey: string;
  appSyncApiId: string;
}

The stack creates the Lambda function with the AppSync connection details as environment variables, grants it appsync:GraphQL permissions scoped to the specific API, creates the IoT Topic Rule with the SQL query, and grants IoT permission to invoke the Lambda.

Two stack outputs are exported for reference:

• AmazingHandIoTRuleArn — The IoT Rule ARN
• AmazingHandLambdaFunctionArn — The Lambda function ARN

CI/CD Pipeline​

The project includes a GitHub Actions workflow (.github/workflows/aws-cdk-deploy.yml) that automates deployment:

1. Triggers on pushes to main and dev branches
2. Authenticates using OIDC (no static AWS credentials stored in GitHub)
3. Automatically discovers the AppSync configuration by:
   • Reading the Amplify App ID from SSM Parameter Store (/iot/amplify/amazinghand)
   • Finding the Amplify data CloudFormation stack
   • Extracting the AppSync API ID from CloudFormation stack resources, then querying the AppSync API directly for the URL and API key
4. Runs cdk deploy with the discovered values

This means the stack automatically stays connected to the correct AppSync API without manual configuration.

Technical Challenges & Solutions

Challenge 1: Flattening Nested IoT Payloads for GraphQL​

Problem: The edge device publishes finger angles in a nested JSON structure (fingers.index.angle_1), but the AppSync GraphQL schema uses flat fields (indexAngle1). The IoT Rules Engine SQL can select nested objects but cannot rename nested fields into flat ones.

Solution: The Lambda function handles the transformation. It receives the nested fingers object from the IoT Rule and manually flattens each field with safe defaults (0 for missing angles, null for optional fields). This keeps the IoT Rule SQL simple and the edge device payload natural.

Challenge 2: Connecting to Amplify-Managed AppSync​

Problem: The AppSync API is managed by Amplify Gen 2 in Part 1's repository, not by this CDK stack. The API URL, API key, and API ID change between environments and deployments.

Solution: The CI/CD pipeline automatically discovers the AppSync configuration at deploy time by reading from SSM Parameter Store and CloudFormation stack outputs. For local development, the values are passed via environment variables in deploy.sh. The CDK stack accepts them as typed props, keeping the infrastructure code clean.

Challenge 3: Extracting Device Name from MQTT Topic​

Problem: The device name is part of the MQTT topic path (the-project/robotic-hand/XIAOAmazingHandRight/state), not the message payload. The Lambda needs it to set the deviceName field in the GraphQL mutation.

Solution: The IoT Rules Engine SQL function topic(3) extracts the 3rd segment of the topic path and aliases it as device_name. This is passed to the Lambda as part of the event, so the Lambda does not need to parse the topic itself. The wildcard + in the topic filter means this works for any device name without configuration changes.

Getting Started

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/chiwaichan/cdk-iot-amazing-hand-streaming

Prerequisites​

• Node.js 18+
• AWS CDK CLI installed (npm install -g aws-cdk)
• AWS CLI configured with credentials
• An existing AppSync API with the HandState schema (deployed via Part 1's Amplify Gen 2 backend)

Deployment Steps​

1. Get AppSync configuration from Part 1's Amplify deployment:

export APPSYNC_API_ID=your_api_id
export APPSYNC_API_URL=https://your-api-id.appsync-api.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/graphql
export APPSYNC_API_KEY=your_api_key

2. Clone and Install:

git clone https://github.com/chiwaichan/cdk-iot-amazing-hand-streaming.git
cd cdk-iot-amazing-hand-streaming
npm install
cd lambda/amazing-hand-to-appsync && npm install && cd ../..

3. Deploy:

./deploy.sh

This bootstraps CDK (if needed) and deploys the stack with the AppSync configuration.

What's Next

In Part 3, I will cover the edge AI agent (strands-agents-amazing-hands) — a Strands Agent powered by Amazon Nova 2 Lite running on an NVIDIA Jetson that subscribes to the MQTT sentence text published by the frontend in Part 1, translates them into physical servo movements on the Pollen Robotics Amazing Hand for ASL fingerspelling, records video, and publishes hand state back to IoT Core — which this Part 2 stack routes through to AppSync for the frontend to consume.

Summary

This post covered the cloud infrastructure layer of the voice-to-sign-language translation system:

• IoT Rules Engine listens on the-project/robotic-hand/+/state and extracts device name from the topic path using topic(3)
• Lambda function flattens nested finger angle payloads (fingers.index.angle_1 → indexAngle1) and calls the AppSync createHandState GraphQL mutation
• AppSync persists to DynamoDB and broadcasts onCreateHandState subscriptions to connected React clients in real-time
• CDK stack is intentionally small (~74 lines) — it creates only the IoT Rule, Lambda, and IAM glue, relying on the Amplify-managed AppSync API from Part 1
• CI/CD pipeline automatically discovers AppSync configuration from SSM Parameter Store, CloudFormation stack resources, and direct AppSync API calls — no manual configuration needed
• The stack completes the real-time feedback loop: edge device publishes state → IoT Core → Lambda → AppSync → React frontend updates 3D hand animation

This is Part 1 of a 3-part series covering a real-time voice-to-sign-language translation system. The complete solution spans three separate repositories, each responsible for a distinct layer of the system:

1. This post (Part 1) - Frontend and Voice Processing — The React web app that captures speech, streams it to Amazon Nova 2 Sonic on Bedrock, publishes cleaned sentence text via MQTT, and renders a real-time 3D hand visualisation
2. Part 2 - Cloud Infrastructure (cdk-iot-amazing-hand-streaming) — The AWS CDK stack that routes IoT Core messages through Lambda to AppSync, enabling real-time GraphQL subscriptions between the edge device and the frontend
3. Part 3 - Edge AI Agent (strands-agents-amazing-hands) — The Strands Agent powered by Amazon Nova 2 Lite running on an NVIDIA Jetson that receives MQTT sentence text, translates it to ASL servo commands, drives the Pollen Robotics Amazing Hand for fingerspelling, and streams video and state back

In this post, I focus on how speech enters the system, how Amazon Nova 2 Sonic processes and cleans up the spoken input, and how the frontend publishes cleaned sentence text over MQTT — setting the stage for Parts 2 and 3.

The key idea is that Nova 2 Sonic is not used as a chatbot here — it is configured as a dumb speech-to-text relay pipe that cleans up grammar, removes filler words like "um" and "uh", translates non-English speech to English, and forwards the cleaned text via a forced tool invocation (send_text) on every single utterance. The frontend then publishes the cleaned sentence text to AWS IoT Core over MQTT for the edge device to translate into ASL servo commands.

Goals

• Capture speech in the browser and stream it to Amazon Nova 2 Sonic via bidirectional streaming — no backend servers required
• Use Nova 2 Sonic's forced tool use (send_text) with toolChoice: { any: {} } to relay cleaned text on every utterance, not as a conversational chatbot
• Publish cleaned sentence text to AWS IoT Core over MQTT for the edge device to translate into ASL servo commands
• Subscribe to real-time hand state updates via GraphQL (AppSync) and synchronise a 3D Three.js hand animation with the physical hand
• Use AWS Amplify Gen 2 for infrastructure-as-code backend definition in TypeScript (Cognito, AppSync, IAM policies)
• Display a 3-column UI with signed letter history, 3D hand animation with video feed, and live transcript with microphone controls

The Overall System

The end-to-end system takes spoken words from a browser microphone all the way through to physical ASL fingerspelling on an Amazing Hand — an open-source robotic hand designed by Pollen Robotics and manufactured by Seeed Studio — passing through cloud AI, IoT messaging, and an edge AI agent along the way.

System Components:

1. React Frontend (this post) - Captures speech, streams to Bedrock, publishes cleaned sentence text to MQTT, renders 3D hand animation synchronised with the physical hand via GraphQL subscriptions
2. Cloud Infrastructure (Part 2) - AWS CDK stack with IoT Core rules that route MQTT messages through Lambda to AppSync, enabling real-time GraphQL subscriptions between the edge device and the frontend
3. Edge AI Agent (Part 3) - Strands Agent powered by Amazon Nova 2 Lite on an NVIDIA Jetson that receives MQTT sentence text, translates it to ASL servo commands, drives the Amazing Hand for fingerspelling letter by letter, records video, and publishes hand state back via IoT Core

Interactive Sequence Diagram​

Architecture

The frontend is built with React 19, Vite 7, and TypeScript 5.9. The application is structured around a main VoiceChat.tsx component that orchestrates four custom hooks, three utility modules, and a Three.js-based hand animation component.

React Hooks Architecture​

Components:

• VoiceChat.tsx - Main UI component with a 3-column responsive layout. Coordinates all hooks, renders the transcript feed, microphone controls, signed letter history, hand state data grid, video feed, and 3D animation. Collapses to a single column on screens under 1100px
• useNovaSonic - Core hook managing the Bedrock bidirectional stream with InvokeModelWithBidirectionalStreamCommand. Handles authentication via Cognito, the Nova 2 Sonic event protocol (session/prompt/content lifecycle), the async generator input stream with backpressure, and send_text tool use responses. The tool is configured with toolChoice: { any: {} } to force tool invocation on every utterance
• useAudioRecorder - Captures microphone input using an inline AudioWorklet running in a separate thread. Accumulates 2048 samples per buffer, resamples from the device sample rate (typically 48kHz) to 16kHz, converts Float32 to PCM16, and Base64 encodes for transmission
• useAudioPlayer - Provides audio playback capability (FIFO queue of AudioBuffers at 24kHz). In the current implementation, Nova 2 Sonic's audio output is intentionally discarded since only the cleaned text via tool use is needed — the hook is available but not actively fed audio data
• useHandStream - Subscribes to AppSync GraphQL onCreateHandState subscription filtered by device name. Fetches the last 20 hand states on mount and maintains a real-time list of 8 servo angles (thumb, index, middle, ring — each with two joint angles), letters, and video URLs
• iotPublisher.ts - Publishes MQTT messages to the topic the-project/robotic-hand/XIAOAmazingHandRight/action. Publishes cleaned sentence text as { id, sentence, ts } payloads and handles IoT policy attachment to the Cognito identity
• HandAnimation.tsx - Procedurally generated 3D robotic hand using Three.js with no external 3D models. The palm is built with LatheGeometry (curved cup shape), and each finger has a dual-joint rig (proximal + distal) with synchronised linkage. Uses WebGL rendering with PCFSoftShadowMap shadows, OrbitControls, and industrial-style materials with metalness/roughness

Authentication Flow​

The frontend needs temporary AWS credentials to call both Bedrock (for Nova 2 Sonic streaming) and IoT Core (for MQTT publishing). No long-term credentials are stored in the browser.

Authentication Layers:

• Cognito User Pool - Handles user registration and login with email/password. Configured via Amplify Gen 2 defineAuth with preferredUsername as an optional attribute
• Cognito Identity Pool - Exchanges JWT tokens from the User Pool for temporary AWS credentials (access key, secret key, session token). Credentials are automatically refreshed by the Amplify SDK before expiration
• IAM Role - The authenticated user role grants two sets of permissions: bedrock:InvokeModel and bedrock:InvokeModelWithResponseStream scoped to amazon.nova-2-sonic-v1:0 in us-east-1, and iot:Publish, iot:Connect, iot:DescribeEndpoint, and iot:AttachPolicy for IoT Core MQTT access. An IoT Core policy (RoboticHandPolicy) is also attached to the Cognito identity at runtime to authorise MQTT publishing to the the-project/robotic-hand/* topic pattern

How it works

Audio Capture and Processing​

The browser captures audio from the microphone using the Web Audio API and an AudioWorklet running in a separate thread. The AudioWorklet avoids main-thread blocking and processes audio in real-time with echo cancellation and noise suppression enabled.

Input Processing (Recording):

1. Microphone - Browser calls getUserMedia() to capture audio at the device's native sample rate (typically 48kHz) with mono channel, echo cancellation, and noise suppression enabled
2. AudioWorklet - An inline AudioCaptureProcessor (loaded as a Blob URL to avoid CORS issues) runs in a separate thread. It accumulates samples in a buffer and posts a Float32Array message to the main thread every 2048 samples
3. Resample - Linear interpolation resampling converts from 48kHz to 16kHz (Nova 2 Sonic's required input rate). The ratio is calculated dynamically from the actual device sample rate
4. Float32 to PCM16 - Floating point samples in the range [-1, 1] are converted to 16-bit signed integers. Negative values are multiplied by 0x8000 and positive values by 0x7FFF
5. Base64 Encode - The binary PCM data is encoded to Base64 text for JSON transmission to Bedrock via a custom uint8ArrayToBase64() utility that iterates bytes into a binary string and then calls btoa()

Amazon Nova 2 Sonic Bidirectional Streaming​

The heart of the system is the bidirectional stream to Amazon Nova 2 Sonic using InvokeModelWithBidirectionalStreamCommand. Nova 2 Sonic is configured not as a chatbot, but as a speech relay that cleans up input and forwards it via forced tool use.

Input Events (sent to Bedrock):

• sessionStart - Initialises the session with inference configuration: maxTokens: 1024, topP: 0.9, temperature: 0.7
• promptStart - Configures audio output format: audio/lpcm at 24kHz, 16-bit, mono, voice matthew, Base64 encoding. Also defines the send_text tool with toolChoice: { any: {} } to force tool invocation on every utterance
• contentStart (TEXT) - Sends the system prompt that instructs Nova 2 Sonic to act as a "dumb speech-to-text relay pipe" — clean up grammar, remove filler words, translate non-English to English, call send_text with the cleaned text, then respond with only "Sent"
• contentStart (AUDIO) - Marks the beginning of audio input content
• audioInput - Streams Base64-encoded 16kHz PCM audio chunks in real-time as the user speaks
• contentEnd / promptEnd / sessionEnd - Lifecycle events to terminate content blocks, prompts, and sessions

Output Events (received from Bedrock):

• textOutput - Returns transcribed user speech and the generated AI response text ("Sent")
• toolUse - The send_text tool invocation containing the cleaned text in { sentence: "..." } format. This is the primary output — the frontend publishes the sentence to MQTT for the edge device to translate into ASL servo commands
• audioOutput - Synthesised voice response as Base64-encoded 24kHz PCM. In the current implementation, audio output is intentionally discarded since only the cleaned text via tool use is needed

Tool Use — send_text:

• The tool is defined with toolChoice: { any: {} }, which forces Nova 2 Sonic to call it on every single utterance without exception
• The tool accepts a single sentence parameter — the cleaned-up, well-formed sentence
• When the tool invocation arrives, the frontend extracts the sentence and publishes it as { id, sentence, ts } to IoT Core via MQTT using publishSentence(). The edge device then translates the sentence into ASL servo commands
• A JSON tool result ({ "status": "success", "sentence": "..." }) is sent back to Nova 2 Sonic to complete the tool use cycle

Publishing Sentences via MQTT​

Once the cleaned sentence is extracted from the send_text tool invocation, iotPublisher.ts publishes it to the MQTT topic the-project/robotic-hand/XIAOAmazingHandRight/action via AWS IoT Core.

The payload is a simple JSON object containing:

• id - A UUID for the message
• sentence - The cleaned sentence text from Nova 2 Sonic
• ts - Unix timestamp in seconds

The edge device (covered in Part 3) receives this sentence and is responsible for translating it into ASL servo commands and driving the physical hand.

Interactive Sequence Diagram​

The browser console logs the performance breakdown for each utterance through the voice-to-IoT pipeline. In this example, the end-to-end time from speech detection to IoT publish is approximately 2.9 seconds — with the majority spent on Speech-to-Text (2228ms) as Nova 2 Sonic processes the audio, followed by Text-to-Tool extraction (423ms) and IoT Publish (243ms):

Real-Time Hand State via GraphQL Subscription​

The frontend subscribes to AppSync's onCreateHandState GraphQL subscription to receive real-time updates from the edge device. Each update includes the device name, current letter being signed, all 8 servo angles (thumb, index, middle, ring — each with two joint angles), a timestamp, and an optional video URL.

On mount, the hook fetches the last 20 hand states to populate the UI immediately. New states arrive in real-time as the edge device publishes them back through IoT Core → Lambda → AppSync. The data is displayed in both the signed letter history panel and the raw hand state data grid.

3D Hand Visualisation​

The HandAnimation.tsx component renders a procedurally generated 3D robotic hand using Three.js — no external 3D models are loaded. The entire hand is built from code:

• The palm uses LatheGeometry to create a curved cup shape that tapers from a narrow wrist (radius 0.18) to wide knuckles (radius 0.56)
• Each finger has a dual-joint rig with proximal and distal segments, knuckle joints, linkage bars, and fingertips. The thumb is mounted on the side of the palm and rotates on the Z-axis, while the index, middle, and ring fingers are mounted on the front rim and rotate on the X-axis
• The distal joint automatically follows the proximal joint at 50% of its angle, simulating a synchronised linkage mechanism
• Materials use industrial-style metalness/roughness: dark gray frame (0x2a2a2a), light gray joints (0x888888), and darker gray tips (0x555555)
• The scene includes PCFSoftShadowMap shadows, ambient lighting (0.8), directional light (1.0), and a fill light (0.4), with OrbitControls for interactive zoom and rotation

Servo angle updates from the GraphQL subscription drive the finger rotations in real-time, keeping the 3D animation synchronised with the physical Amazing Hand.

Audio Playback​

The useAudioPlayer hook provides a FIFO queue-based audio playback capability for Web Audio AudioBuffer objects at 24kHz. However, in the current implementation, Nova 2 Sonic's audio output is intentionally discarded — the onAudioOutput callback is set to a no-op since only the cleaned text via the send_text tool use is needed to drive the MQTT pipeline. The hook remains available for future use if audio feedback is desired.

Technical Challenges & Solutions

Challenge 1: AudioWorklet CORS Issues​

Problem: Loading an AudioWorklet processor from an external JavaScript file fails with CORS errors on some deployments, particularly when using Amplify Hosting.

Solution: Inline the AudioWorklet code as a Blob URL. The processor code is defined as a string, converted to a Blob with type application/javascript, and loaded via URL.createObjectURL(). The object URL is revoked after the module is added:

const blob = new Blob([audioWorkletCode], { type: 'application/javascript' });
const workletUrl = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
await audioContext.audioWorklet.addModule(workletUrl);
URL.revokeObjectURL(workletUrl);

Challenge 2: Forcing Tool Use on Every Utterance​

Problem: Nova 2 Sonic is a conversational model by default — it wants to chat and respond naturally. But in this system, it needs to act as a pure relay, forwarding every single utterance as cleaned text without adding commentary or refusing any messages.

Solution: A combination of system prompt engineering and forced tool use. The system prompt explicitly instructs Nova 2 Sonic to act as a "dumb speech-to-text relay pipe" and never add commentary. The send_text tool is configured with toolChoice: { any: {} }, which forces the model to invoke a tool on every response. After calling the tool, it is instructed to only respond with "Sent".

Challenge 3: Keeping MQTT Payloads Simple​

Problem: The system needs to transmit the user's intent from the frontend to the edge device reliably via IoT Core MQTT.

Solution: Rather than translating text to servo commands on the frontend (which would require large payloads with many servo poses), the frontend publishes only the cleaned sentence text as a compact { id, sentence, ts } JSON payload. The edge device is responsible for translating the sentence into ASL servo commands, keeping the MQTT messages small and the frontend simple.

Getting Started

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/chiwaichan/amplify-react-nova-sonic-voice-chat-amazing-hand

Prerequisites​

• Node.js 18+
• AWS Account with Amazon Nova 2 Sonic model access enabled in Bedrock (us-east-1 region)
• AWS CLI configured with credentials

Deployment Steps​

1. Enable Nova 2 Sonic in Bedrock Console (us-east-1 region)

2. Clone and Install:

git clone https://github.com/chiwaichan/amplify-react-nova-sonic-voice-chat-amazing-hand.git
cd amplify-react-nova-sonic-voice-chat-amazing-hand
npm install

3. Start Amplify Sandbox:

npx ampx sandbox

4. Run Development Server:

npm run dev

5. Open Application: Navigate to http://localhost:5173, create an account, and start talking. Note that the full system requires Parts 2 and 3 to be deployed for the physical hand to respond — but the frontend will still capture speech, process it through Nova 2 Sonic, and display the 3D hand animation independently.

What's Next

In Part 2, I will cover the cloud infrastructure layer — the AWS CDK stack (cdk-iot-amazing-hand-streaming) that routes IoT Core MQTT messages through Lambda to AppSync. This is the bridge that enables real-time GraphQL subscriptions, allowing the frontend to receive hand state updates from the edge device as they happen.

In Part 3, I will cover the edge AI agent (strands-agents-amazing-hands) — a Strands Agent powered by Amazon Nova 2 Lite running on an NVIDIA Jetson that subscribes to the MQTT sentence text published by this frontend, translates them into physical servo movements on the Pollen Robotics Amazing Hand for ASL fingerspelling, records video of the hand in action, and publishes state back through IoT Core.

Summary

This post covered the frontend and voice processing layer of a real-time voice-to-sign-language translation system:

• Amazon Nova 2 Sonic is used not as a chatbot but as a speech relay — configured via system prompt and toolChoice: { any: {} } forced send_text tool use to clean up grammar, remove filler words, translate to English, and forward every utterance as text
• Audio pipeline captures at 48kHz via AudioWorklet, resamples to 16kHz, converts to PCM16 Base64 for Bedrock input. Nova 2 Sonic's audio output is intentionally discarded since only the cleaned text is needed
• MQTT publishing sends cleaned sentence text as { id, sentence, ts } to AWS IoT Core for the edge device to translate into ASL servo commands
• Real-time feedback via GraphQL subscriptions keeps the 3D Three.js hand animation synchronised with the physical Amazing Hand using 8 servo angles (thumb, index, middle, ring — each with two joints)
• Fully serverless frontend using AWS Amplify Gen 2 with Cognito authentication, no backend servers — direct browser-to-Bedrock and browser-to-IoT Core communication

I want to have the ability to be able to manage the firmware of all IoT devices using a prompt - it could be to upgrade a device to the latest version, or even to perform a rollback, whether across the entire IoT device fleet level - every device in all 20+ solution types, all the devices within a type of solution, or even at an individual device level.

Goals

• To be able to over-the-air flash a new firmware version using a prompt
• To have an Agentic Agent do all the work, give it a prompt and it takes cares of the rest
• Scalable in the number of IoT devices, as well as, being able to scale as the number of new IoT solution Types increases; with no effort required - implement once and forget
• Have the ability to rollback to any firmware version specified in the prompt
• This same solution can be interfaced with using the Model Context Protocol (MCP): whether via Kiro CLI or Claude Code
• This same solution can be interfaced with using a chatbot
• Must be authenticated to interface with this solution
• Must be a completely serverless-solution
• Firmware integrity verification using SHA256 checksums before flashing to ensure firmware hasn't been corrupted during download
• Safe rollout with rate limiting and automatic abort thresholds to prevent fleet-wide failures
• Device firmware version tracking via device shadows to enable version-based targeting for updates
• Configuration-gated deployments to enable or disable OTA updates per device type for controlled rollouts

Architecture

End-to-End OTA Firmware Update Flow​

This diagram illustrates the complete flow from a user's natural language prompt to firmware being flashed on Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 devices.

Flow Steps:

1. User Prompt - Developer/Operator provides a natural language command (e.g., "Update all vision_ai_face_detector devices to v2.0.0")
2. AgentCore Runtime - Amazon Bedrock AgentCore receives and processes the request
3. Strands Agent - The agent with firmware_updater tool reasons about the task
4. Config Check - Agent queries DynamoDB to verify the device type is enabled for OTA updates
5. Firmware Metadata - Agent retrieves firmware binary, SHA256 checksum, and metadata from S3
6. Create IoT Job - Agent creates a continuous IoT Job targeting the specified device group
7. MQTT Notification - AWS IoT Core notifies devices via MQTT topic $aws/things/+/jobs/notify
8. Firmware Download - Each XIAO ESP32S3 Vision AI Face Detector downloads the firmware directly from S3
9. Version Reporting - Devices report their new firmware version to their Device Shadow

Interactive Sequence Diagram​

Strands Agent Architecture on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore​

This diagram details the internal architecture of the Strands Agent running on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, showing how the LLM reasons about prompts and orchestrates tool execution.

Components:

• Amazon Bedrock AgentCore - Managed runtime that hosts and scales the agent
• ECR Container - Docker image (Python 3.12) containing the Strands Agent code
• Amazon Nova 2 Lite - The LLM that provides reasoning capabilities
• Agent Loop - The core execution cycle: parse prompt → select tool → execute → respond
• firmware_updater Tools:
  • push_firmware_update() - Main orchestrator that coordinates the entire OTA process
  • validate_files_exist() - Validates firmware.bin, firmware.sha256, and metadata.json exist in S3
  • create_dynamic_thing_group() - Creates Fleet Indexing queries to target devices by firmware version

Scalability Architecture​

This diagram demonstrates how the solution scales effortlessly across multiple device types and large device fleets - implement once and forget.

Key Scalability Features:

• Single Agent, Multiple Device Types - One Strands Agent manages all 26+ device groups without code changes
• S3 Folder Convention - Adding a new device type is as simple as creating a new folder (e.g., firmwares/v1.0.0/new_device_type/)
• Auto-Discovery Mapping - Folder names automatically map to Thing Groups (e.g., vision_ai_face_detector → VisionAIFaceDetectorAWSDevice)
• Fleet Indexing Queries - Dynamically target devices based on current firmware version, no hardcoded device lists
• Horizontal Scaling - Add unlimited devices to any group; IoT Jobs handles distribution automatically

Firmware Rollback Architecture​

This diagram shows how the solution enables rollback to any previous firmware version using a simple prompt, leveraging the dual-partition architecture of the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32.

Key Rollback Features:

• Version History in S3 - All firmware versions are retained (v1.0.0, v2.0.0, v3.0.0, etc.) enabling rollback to any point
• Dual-Partition Flash Layout - XIAO ESP32 uses APP0/APP1 partitions for safe ping-pong updates
• Persistent Storage - NVS (WiFi, config) and SPIFFS (certificates) survive firmware updates
• SHA256 Validation - Firmware integrity verified before committing to new partition
• Automatic Rollback - If new firmware fails to boot and connect to MQTT, device automatically reverts to previous partition

Interactive Sequence Diagram​

Multi-Interface Access Architecture​

This diagram demonstrates how the Strands Agent can be accessed through multiple interfaces with different authentication methods - enabling developers to use their preferred tools while operators can use a web-based chatbot.

Interface Options:

• MCP Clients (Developer Tools) - Claude Code and Kiro CLI connect via Model Context Protocol to a Streaming AgentCore Runtime using JWT/Cognito authentication
• Chatbot (Web UI) - AWS Amplify React app with FirmwareAssistant component connects via Lambda proxy to an IAM AgentCore Runtime using SigV4 authentication for service-to-service communication
• Two Runtimes, Same Agent Logic - Both runtimes run the same Strands Agent code but are deployed separately with different authentication methods suited to their use cases

Firmware AI Assistant Chatbot​

The chatbot interface in an Amplify React App provides a conversational way to manage firmware updates. In this example, the assistant lists all available firmware versions across device groups, and then creates an OTA job to update the pet_feeder device group to the latest firmware version.

Authentication Architecture​

This diagram illustrates the multi-layer security model ensuring that all access to the firmware management system is properly authenticated. Each interface uses a different authentication method suited to its use case.

Authentication Layers:

• Cognito JWT (MCP Path) - Developers using Claude Code and Kiro CLI authenticate via Amazon Cognito User Pool and receive JWT tokens, connecting to the Streaming AgentCore Runtime
• IAM SigV4 (Chatbot Path) - The Lambda proxy authenticates using AWS IAM roles with SigV4 request signing for service-to-service communication with the IAM AgentCore Runtime
• X.509 Certificates (Device Path) - XIAO ESP32 devices authenticate to AWS IoT Core using TLS 1.2 mutual authentication with per-device certificates
• Certificate Chain - Amazon Root CA validates device certificates stored in SPIFFS (survives firmware updates)

Serverless Architecture Overview​

This diagram provides a comprehensive view of all AWS services used in the solution - every component is fully serverless with no EC2 instances to manage.

Serverless Components:

• Frontend - AWS Amplify Hosting, AppSync GraphQL, Cognito User Pool
• Compute - Amazon Bedrock AgentCore, Lambda Functions, EventBridge Rules
• Storage - S3 Firmware Bucket, DynamoDB Config Table
• IoT - IoT Core, IoT Jobs, Device Shadows, Fleet Indexing
• Monitoring - CloudWatch Logs & Alarms, SNS Notifications
• CI/CD - CodeBuild (ARM64), ECR Container Registry

Firmware Integrity Verification (SHA256)​

This diagram shows the firmware integrity verification process that ensures firmware hasn't been corrupted during download before flashing to the device.

Verification Flow:

1. Download - XIAO ESP32 streams firmware.bin from S3 in chunks
2. Calculate - SHA256 hash is calculated progressively during download (streaming hash)
3. Compare - Calculated hash is compared against expected hash from firmware.sha256 file
4. Flash Decision - Match: proceed to flash APP1 partition | Mismatch: abort OTA and report failure

Benefits:

• Detects corruption during download (network issues, incomplete transfers)
• Prevents flashing of tampered firmware
• Memory-efficient streaming verification (no need to store entire firmware before hashing)

Interactive Sequence Diagram​

Safe Rollout with Rate Limiting & Abort Thresholds​

This diagram illustrates the safety mechanisms that prevent fleet-wide failures during OTA updates by controlling rollout speed and automatically aborting when issues are detected.

Safety Mechanisms:

• Rate Limiting - Updates are deployed to a maximum of 10 devices concurrently, preventing network congestion and allowing monitoring
• Abort Thresholds - Job automatically cancels if failure rate exceeds 5% or more than 10 absolute failures occur
• Batch Processing - Fleet of 100 devices is updated in batches, with completed, in-progress, and pending states tracked
• Failure Monitoring - Real-time tracking of success/failure status feeds into abort decision logic
• Auto-Cancel - When threshold is exceeded, all pending device updates are automatically cancelled
• SNS Alerts - Operators are immediately notified when an OTA rollout is aborted

Interactive Sequence Diagram​

Source Code​

The source code for this project is available on GitHub:

• cdk-iot-firmware-manager - AWS CDK infrastructure, Strands Agent code, and Lambda functions for firmware management

I want to use the Jetson Nano to leverage any sensor readings captured by the ESP32C6 and use it for inferences downstream. In the past I would have tried to send the messages between the devices via AWS IoT Core, but over the wires using UART it is definitely much faster - single digit milliseconds over UART.

Here is the source code to use as a building block to enable a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C6 to send messages to a NVIDIA Jetson Nano Super over the UART protocol; uni-direction. The XIAO code is a PlatformIO project and the Jetson Nano Super is a Python script.

Source Code​

You can find the source code for this project here: https://github.com/chiwaichan/nvidia-jetson-nano-super-seeed-studio-xiao-esp32c6-uart

This thing is a beast and I am keen to see what kind of AI robotics experiments I can create from this.

The key component of this solution is using Amazon Nova 2 Sonic, a speech-to-speech foundation model that can understand spoken audio directly and generate voice responses - all through a single bidirectional stream from the browser directly to Amazon Bedrock, with no backend servers required - no EC2 instances and no Containers.

Goals

• Enable real-time voice-to-voice conversations with AI using Amazon Nova 2 Sonic
• Direct browser-to-Bedrock communication using bidirectional streaming - no Lambda functions or API Gateway required
• Use AWS Amplify Gen 2 for infrastructure-as-code backend definition in TypeScript
• Implement secure authentication using Cognito User Pool and Identity Pool for temporary AWS credentials
• Handle real-time audio capture, processing, and playback entirely in the browser
• Must be a completely serverless solution with automatic scaling
• Support click-to-talk interaction model for intuitive user experience
• Display live transcripts of both user speech and AI responses

Architecture

End-to-End Voice Chat Flow​

This diagram illustrates the complete flow from a user speaking into their microphone to hearing the AI assistant's voice response.

Flow Steps:

1. User Speaks - User clicks the microphone button and speaks naturally
2. Audio Capture - Browser captures audio via Web Audio API at 48kHz
3. Authentication - React app authenticates with Cognito User Pool
4. Token Exchange - JWT tokens exchanged for Identity Pool credentials
5. AWS Credentials - Temporary AWS credentials (access key, secret, session token) returned
6. Bidirectional Stream - Audio streamed to Bedrock via InvokeModelWithBidirectionalStream
7. Voice Response - Nova Sonic processes speech and returns synthesized voice response
8. Audio Playback - Response audio decoded and played through speakers
9. User Hears - User hears the AI assistant's natural voice response

Interactive Sequence Diagram​

React Hooks Architecture​

This diagram details the internal architecture of the React application, showing how custom hooks orchestrate audio capture, Bedrock communication, and playback.

Components:

• VoiceChat.tsx - Main UI component that coordinates all hooks and renders the interface
• useNovaSonic - Core hook managing Bedrock bidirectional stream, authentication, and event protocol
• useAudioRecorder - Captures microphone input using AudioWorklet in a separate thread
• useAudioPlayer - Manages audio playback queue and Web Audio API buffer sources
• audioUtils.ts - Low-level utilities for PCM conversion, resampling, and Base64 encoding

Data Flow:

1. Microphone audio captured by useAudioRecorder via MediaStream
2. AudioWorklet processes samples in real-time (separate thread)
3. Audio resampled from 48kHz to 16kHz, converted to PCM16, then Base64
4. useNovaSonic streams audio chunks to Bedrock
5. Response audio received as Base64, decoded to PCM, converted to Float32
6. useAudioPlayer queues AudioBuffers and plays through AudioContext

Authentication Flow​

This diagram shows the multi-layer authentication flow that enables secure browser-to-Bedrock communication without exposing long-term credentials.

Authentication Layers:

• Cognito User Pool - Handles user registration and login with email/password
• Cognito Identity Pool - Exchanges JWT tokens for temporary AWS credentials
• IAM Role - Defines permissions for authenticated users (Bedrock invoke access)
• SigV4 Signing - AWS SDK automatically signs all Bedrock requests

Key Security Features:

• No AWS credentials stored in browser - only temporary session credentials
• Credentials automatically refreshed by Amplify SDK before expiration
• IAM policy scoped to specific Bedrock model (amazon.nova-2-sonic-v1:0)
• All communication over HTTPS with TLS 1.2+

Audio Processing Pipeline​

This diagram shows the real-time audio processing that converts browser audio to Bedrock's required format and vice versa.

Input Processing (Recording):

1. Microphone - Browser captures audio at native sample rate (typically 48kHz)
2. AudioWorklet - Processes audio in separate thread, accumulates 2048 samples
3. Resample - Linear interpolation converts 48kHz → 16kHz (Nova Sonic requirement)
4. Float32 → PCM16 - Converts floating point [-1,1] to 16-bit signed integers
5. Base64 Encode - Binary PCM encoded for JSON transmission

Output Processing (Playback):

1. Base64 Decode - Received audio converted from Base64 to binary
2. PCM16 → Float32 - 16-bit integers converted to floating point
3. AudioBuffer - Web Audio API buffer created at 24kHz (Nova Sonic output rate)
4. Queue & Play - Buffers queued and played sequentially through speakers

Interactive Sequence Diagram​

Bidirectional Streaming Protocol​

This diagram illustrates how the useNovaSonic hook manages the complex bidirectional streaming protocol with Amazon Bedrock.

Event Protocol: Nova Sonic uses an event-based protocol where each interaction consists of named sessions, prompts, and content blocks.

Input Events (sent to Bedrock):

• sessionStart - Initializes session with inference parameters (maxTokens: 1024, topP: 0.9, temperature: 0.7)
• promptStart - Defines output audio format (24kHz, LPCM, voice "matthew")
• contentStart - Marks beginning of content blocks (TEXT for system prompt, AUDIO for user speech)
• textInput - Sends system prompt text content
• audioInput - Streams user audio chunks as Base64-encoded 16kHz PCM
• contentEnd - Marks end of content block
• promptEnd / sessionEnd - Terminates prompt and session

Output Events (received from Bedrock):

• contentStart - Marks role transitions (USER for ASR, ASSISTANT for response)
• textOutput - Returns transcribed user speech and generated AI response text
• audioOutput - Returns synthesized voice response as Base64-encoded 24kHz PCM
• contentEnd - Marks end of response content

Async Generator Pattern: The SDK requires input as AsyncIterable<Uint8Array>. The hook implements this using:

• Event Queue - Pre-queued initialization events before stream starts
• Promise Resolver - Backpressure control for yielding events on demand
• pushEvent() - Adds new events during conversation (audio chunks)

Serverless Architecture Overview​

This diagram provides a comprehensive view of all components - the entire solution is serverless with no EC2 instances or containers to manage.

Frontend Stack:

• React - Component-based UI framework
• Vite - Build tool and dev server
• TypeScript - Type-safe development
• AWS Amplify Hosting - Static web hosting with global CDN

Backend Stack (Amplify Gen 2):

• amplify/backend.ts - Infrastructure defined in TypeScript
• Cognito User Pool - Email-based authentication
• Cognito Identity Pool - AWS credential vending
• IAM Policy - Grants bedrock:InvokeModel permission for bidirectional streaming

AI Service:

• Amazon Bedrock - Managed foundation model inference
• Nova 2 Sonic - Speech-to-speech model (us-east-1)
• Bidirectional Streaming - Real-time duplex communication

Technical Challenges & Solutions

Challenge 1: AudioWorklet CORS Issues​

Problem: Loading AudioWorklet from external file fails with CORS errors on some deployments.

Solution: Inline the AudioWorklet code as a Blob URL:

const blob = new Blob([audioWorkletCode], { type: 'application/javascript' });
const workletUrl = URL.createObjectURL(blob);
await audioContext.audioWorklet.addModule(workletUrl);
URL.revokeObjectURL(workletUrl);

Challenge 2: Sample Rate Mismatch​

Problem: Browsers capture audio at 48kHz, but Nova Sonic requires 16kHz input.

Solution: Linear interpolation resampling in real-time:

const resampleAudio = (audioData: Float32Array, sourceSampleRate: number, targetSampleRate: number) => {
  const ratio = sourceSampleRate / targetSampleRate;
  const newLength = Math.floor(audioData.length / ratio);
  const result = new Float32Array(newLength);
  for (let i = 0; i < newLength; i++) {
    const srcIndex = i * ratio;
    const floor = Math.floor(srcIndex);
    const ceil = Math.min(floor + 1, audioData.length - 1);
    const t = srcIndex - floor;
    result[i] = audioData[floor] * (1 - t) + audioData[ceil] * t;
  }
  return result;
};

Challenge 3: SDK Bidirectional Stream Input​

Problem: AWS SDK requires input as AsyncIterable<Uint8Array>, but events need to be pushed dynamically during the conversation.

Solution: Async generator with event queue and promise-based backpressure:

async function* createInputStream() {
  while (isActiveRef.current && !ctrl.closed) {
    while (ctrl.eventQueue.length > 0) {
      yield ctrl.eventQueue.shift();
    }
    const nextEvent = await new Promise(resolve => {
      ctrl.resolver = resolve;
    });
    if (nextEvent === null) break;
    yield nextEvent;
  }
}

Getting Started

GitHub Repository: https://github.com/chiwaichan/amplify-react-amazon-nova-2-sonic-voice-chat

Prerequisites​

• Node.js 18+
• AWS Account with Bedrock access enabled
• AWS CLI configured with credentials

Deployment Steps​

1. Enable Nova 2 Sonic in Bedrock Console (us-east-1 region)

2. Clone and Install:

git clone https://github.com/chiwaichan/amplify-react-amazon-nova-2-sonic-voice-chat.git
cd amplify-react-amazon-nova-2-sonic-voice-chat
npm install

3. Start Amplify Sandbox:

npx ampx sandbox

4. Run Development Server:

npm run dev

5. Open Application: Navigate to http://localhost:5173, create an account, and start talking!

Summary

This architecture provides a reusable building block for voice-enabled AI applications:

• Zero backend servers - Direct browser-to-Bedrock communication
• Real-time streaming - HTTP/2 bidirectional streaming for low latency
• Secure authentication - Cognito User Pool + Identity Pool + IAM policies
• Audio processing pipeline - Web Audio API, AudioWorklet, PCM conversion
• Infrastructure as code - AWS Amplify Gen 2 with TypeScript backend definition

The entire interaction happens in real-time: speak naturally, and hear the AI respond within seconds.

A Sphero RVR integrated with a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 with telemetry uploaded into, and also, basic drive remote control commands received from any where leveraging AWS IoT Core.

Overview​

Lately I have been aiming to go deep on AI Robotics, and last year I have been slowly experimenting more and more with anything that is AI, IoT and Robotics related; with the intention of learning and going as wide and as deep as possible in any pillars I can think of. You can check out my blogs under the Robotics Project to see what I have been up to. This year I want to focus on enabling mobility for my experiments - as in providing wheels for solutions to move around the house, ideally autonomously; starting off with wheel based solutions bought off-shelve, followed by solutions that I build myself from open-sourced projects people have kindly contirbuted online, and then ambitiously designed, 3D Printed and built all from the ground up - perhaps in a couple of years time.

This project uses a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 microcontroller to communicate with a Sphero RVR robot via UART, while simultaneously connecting to AWS IoT Core over WiFi. The system publishes real-time sensor telemetry and accepts remote drive commands through MQTT.

Hardware Components​

Hardware Wiring​

Features​

Real-time Telemetry​

The system publishes comprehensive sensor data every 60 seconds:

• IMU Data: Pitch, roll, yaw orientation
• Accelerometer & Gyroscope: Motion and rotation data
• Color Sensor: RGB values with confidence
• Compass: Heading in degrees
• Ambient Light: Lux measurements
• Motor Thermal: Temperature and protection status
• Encoders: Wheel tick counts
• Position & Velocity: Locator data in meters

Remote Commands via MQTT​

Control the RVR from anywhere using JSON commands:

• Drive: Speed and heading control
• Tank: Independent left/right motor control
• Raw Motors: Direct motor speed control
• LED Control: Headlights, brakelights, status LEDs
• Navigation: Reset yaw, reset locator
• Power: Wake and sleep commands

Local OLED Display​

The XIAO Expansion Board's OLED display shows real-time sensor readings for local monitoring.

MQTT Message Flow​

Sensor Data Pipeline​

Architecture​

The XIAO ESP32S3 acts as a bridge between the Sphero RVR and AWS IoT Core:

1. UART Communication: The ESP32S3 communicates with the RVR via UART (GPIO43/44)
2. WiFi Connection: Connects to local WiFi network
3. MQTT over TLS: Secure connection to AWS IoT Core with X.509 certificates
4. Bidirectional: Publishes telemetry and subscribes to command topics

Sphero RVR Protocol​

The Sphero RVR uses a binary packet-based protocol over UART. Each packet contains a start-of-packet byte (0x8D), an 8-byte header with device ID and command ID, variable-length data body, checksum, and end-of-packet byte (0xD8). The RVR has two internal processors: Nordic (handles BLE, power, color detection) and ST (handles motors, IMU, encoders).

Source Code​

I ported the code into this project to control the RVR using the UART protocol based on the Sphero SDK.

You can find the source code for this project here: https://github.com/chiwaichan/platformio-aws-iot-seeed-studio-esp32s3-sphero-rvr

The LeRobot Follower arm is subscribed to an IoT Topic that is being published in real-time by the LeRobot Leader arm over AWS IoT Core, using a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3 integrated with a Seeed Studio Bus Servo Driver Board, the driver board is controlling the 6 Feetech 3215 Servos over the UART protocol.

In this video I demonstrate how to control a set of Hugging Face SO-101 arms over AWS IoT Core, without the use of the LeRobot framework, nor using a device such as a Mac nor a device like Nvidia Jetson Orin Nano Super Developer Kit. Only using Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3 and AWS IoT.

You can find the source code for this solution here: https://github.com/chiwaichan/aws-iot-core-lerobot-so101

I was hungry and tried to feed myself but I forgot to bring cat food.

Here is the source-code Streamlit App I demoed at the AWS Sydney Summit, to demonstrate how to control IoT devices using the Strands Agents: https://github.com/chiwaichan/AWSSydneySummit2025Demo