Natural voice
Wake-word activation, local speech recognition and responsive conversational interaction.
Personal AI Robotics Project
TARZ
A self-hosted personal AI robot combining natural voice interaction, local intelligence, expressive behaviour, computer vision and governed access to powerful AI tools.
SYSTEM // ONLINE
LOCAL AI
An AI assistant that exists in the physical world.
TARZ is an independently developed robotics project exploring how conversational AI, local computing, sensing and physical interaction can work together as one coherent system.
Unlike a conventional smart speaker, TARZ is intended to understand spoken requests, interact naturally, perceive its environment, express personality through sound and visuals, and eventually interact physically with the world around it.
Core robot functions are designed to remain locally controlled, with cloud AI used selectively where it adds capability rather than becoming the robot's only operating dependency.
Designed around interaction.
TARZ combines embedded robotics with modern conversational AI while keeping safety-critical behaviour under local control.
Local intelligence
Raspberry Pi-based processing keeps essential speech, sensing and robot behaviour available locally.
Computer vision
Camera-based perception enables future awareness, tracking, recognition and environment-aware behaviours.
Expressive interface
Displays, audio, lighting and character behaviours give TARZ a more physical and expressive presence.
Physical robotics
Sensors, motors and embedded controllers provide the foundation for movement and real-world interaction.
Governed AI tools
External AI and software tools can be accessed through explicit controlled interfaces rather than unrestricted robot-level access.
Local-first architecture.
TARZ separates conversational intelligence from the hardware safety systems responsible for controlling the physical robot.
Voice
Wake detection, streaming speech recognition and speech synthesis.
AI
Conversational reasoning, tools and project-aware intelligence.
Perception
Camera, distance sensing, orientation and environmental awareness.
Robot control
Bounded movement and hardware operations through dedicated controllers.
Safety
Local emergency stop, movement limits and hardware-level safeguards.
Development status
Active prototype
TARZ is currently under active development. Voice, AI, interface, sensing and physical robot systems are being developed and tested incrementally before integration into the finished robot.