Live Proof of Concept · Switzerland

Robot Ross
Sovereign. Auditable.
EU AI Act Ready.

A working robot arm that speaks, listens, draws, engraves — and documents itself in real time.
Running entirely on local hardware. No data leaves the building.
Full EU AI Act compliance — by architecture, not retrofit.

Visit robotross.art → ▶ Watch the Demo Experience AI-Powered EU Compliance →
Replace the pen with a drill bit, replace the canvas with a workpiece — and this is a CNC manufacturing cell running on sovereign AI. The architecture is the same. The pen is the only thing that changes.
🎓 Robotics research, ETH Zürich
📐 35 years of industrial software engineering in DACH
🤖 Cyber-physical proof of concept running today
⚖️ Built for EU AI Act by architecture, not retrofit
Architecture

The architecture of an industrial AI cell — running live.

Every component here has a direct counterpart in a factory deployment.

Automated Technical File
🆕 New · April 2026

Robot Ross documents itself.
Live. Queryable. EU AI Act ready.

We applied Karpathy's LLM-Wiki pattern to a physical robot system and mapped it directly to the EU AI Act Technical File requirements. The Flotilla agent fleet continuously reads source code, architecture docs, and live robot logs — and synthesises them into a human-readable, searchable, question-answerable knowledge base. Not a PDF. A living document.

⚡ Experience AI-Powered EU Compliance → Karpathy's LLM-Wiki ↗

EU AI Act — satisfied by architecture, not documentation effort.

Article 12 · Traceability

The system describes itself.

The fleet ingests source code and generates a browsable wiki of the system's taxonomy, components, and implementation. Agents update it as code evolves — documentation is never stale.

Article 13 · Transparency

Logs become readable knowledge.

High-risk systems must be explainable. The ATF converts raw robot logs into human-readable, searchable information — your expert engineer available 24/7, without a specialist on-site.

Article 14 · Human Oversight

A sidekick for the operator.

The Act requires Human-in-the-Loop. The local Q&A layer lets any operator ask what the machine did and why — in plain language, in real time. Faster than reading outdated manuals.

Article 53 · GPAI Providers

Docs that never go stale.

GPAI providers must maintain up-to-date technical documentation. Flotilla agents update the ATF wiki automatically when code changes. Generated continuously, not written once and forgotten.

Six evidence layers — one operator-facing system.

📚

Code Wiki

Linked wiki from source code and architecture docs

📋

Operational Ledger

Append-only log from real robot session data

🌐

Browser Surface

Human-readable docs from any browser

📊

Ledger Dashboard

Visual timeline of what the system did and when

💬

Local Q&A

LLM answers questions against the full corpus

🎙️

Voice Interface

Optional voice layer on the same knowledge base

Two deployment flavours.

🏭 Local Machine

On-Premise · Sovereign

Model runs on the operator machine. Corpus stays on-site. Sensitive production data never leaves the building.

  • Local LLM over the full ATF corpus
  • Operator sidekick — ask questions at the machine
  • Zero cloud dependency for Q&A
  • Works fully air-gapped
☁️ Cloud Deployment

Documentation · Training · Demo

Wiki and dashboard surfaces for auditors, new operators, and external visitors. Non-sensitive documentation served from the cloud.

  • Public wiki for compliance auditors
  • Training material for new operators
  • Live chat demo for prospects
  • Investor-facing evidence layer

Ask Robot Ross about itself.

The live ATF deploys at api.robotross.art/atf — queryable from source code, architecture, and session logs.

Try the ATF Live Demo →
Inside the ATF

What the Technical File looks like.

Three surfaces, one knowledge base. Browse the wiki, inspect the ledger, or ask a question in plain language.

  • W

    The Code Wiki

    A linked set of markdown pages generated by the Flotilla fleet from Robot Ross's source code. Describes every component, module, and integration — cross-referenced, indexed, and updated automatically as code changes. Browse it like Wikipedia. Never a stale README.

  • L

    The Operational Ledger

    An append-only chronological record of every robot session — what was ordered, what the LLM decided, what the arm executed, what the outcome was. The dashboard visualises the ledger as a timeline. Structured so auditors can parse it with simple tools.

  • Q

    The Q&A Interface

    A local LLM runs over the full corpus — wiki pages plus ledger entries — and answers questions in plain language. "What happened in the last session?" "Which EU AI Act articles does this satisfy?" Ask in natural language. Get a cited answer. No specialist required.

Robot Ross ATF · Ledger Dashboard
2026-04-12 02:14 Session #247 started
02:14:03 Voice input received — Whisper STT
02:14:05 Apertus: intent → draw composition
02:14:11 Composition negotiated — confirmed
02:14:13 Haiku: SVG generated (47 paths)
02:14:14 Arm executing — 5pt calib applied
✓ 02:17:42 Session #247 complete
ATF Q&A Interface
Q: Which EU AI Act articles does Robot Ross satisfy?
A: Robot Ross satisfies Article 12 (Traceability)
via the code wiki, Article 13 (Transparency) via
the operational ledger, and Article 14 (Human
Oversight) via the voice confirmation loop and
this interface. [wiki/architecture.md cited]
Voice Interface

Speaks. Listens. Confirms. Draws.
Then explains what happened.

Robot Ross holds a full voice conversation before picking up the pen — negotiating the composition, confirming intent, executing physically, and logging everything to the ATF for later inspection.

🎙️

Speech-to-Text · Whisper (local)

Voice captured and transcribed on-device. No audio leaves the building. Works in noisy factory environments. Latency under 800ms for typical commands.

🧠

Reasoning · Apertus 7B (ETH/EPFL)

Swiss local model interprets intent, manages the conversational back-and-forth, generates the Bob Ross narration, and decides when execution can begin.

🔊

Text-to-Speech · Mistral Voxtral

Speaks the agreed plan back to the operator before execution. Explicit confirmation. Human stays in the loop — EU AI Act Article 14 satisfied.

✏️

SVG Generation · Claude 3.5 Haiku

The agreed composition becomes precise SVG path coordinates. The Python controller drives the arm — and logs every step to the ATF ledger in real time.

"Hi, I'm Robot Ross, and I can draw things." — I talked to Robot Ross using natural language to ask him to draw himself. After a quick back-and-forth about the composition, he decided on a 'robot among trees' and executed the physical drawing."

Original Reddit post, r/MistralAI · 11k+ views in 48 hours

The Full Pipeline — including what happens after.

01

Operator speaks → Whisper transcribes

Voice captured on-device. Every transcript logged to the ATF ledger with timestamp.

02

Apertus reasons → negotiates composition

Local LLM processes the request, asks clarifying questions, and manages a conversational loop until the composition is confirmed — the same pattern as operator dialogue during factory machine setup.

03

Voxtral speaks → confirms before executing

Ross speaks the agreed plan back to the operator. Explicit confirmation before execution. Human in the loop. Article 14 of the EU AI Act requires exactly this.

04

Haiku generates SVG → arm executes

The composition becomes precise SVG paths. Every instruction logged to the ATF operational ledger in real time.

05

ATF updates → operator can ask what happened

After execution, the session is ingested into the ATF. Ask the Q&A interface: "What happened in the last session?" Get a cited, human-readable answer from the ledger. EU AI Act Article 13 in practice.

Multi-Tool Capability

Beyond the pen: wood marking and precision engraving.

Swap the felt pen for a pyrography head and the canvas for a wood panel. Same pipeline. Same audit trail. Same local AI. Different tool head.

Drawing with a felt pen is mechanically forgiving — press harder or softer, the ink still flows. Pyrography is not. Burning wood requires millimetre-precise positioning. Angular drift in X and Y — invisible in drawing — becomes a scorched line in the wrong place.

We moved to a 5-point calibration system to compensate for these angular drifts — four perimeter reference points plus a centre point, computing and correcting both translational offset and rotational error across the full work surface. Calibration runs automatically before each burn job.

🔥

Pyrography Head

Temperature-controlled burning tip replaces the felt pen. Same arm, same SVG pipeline, different end effector.

📐

5-Point Calibration

Angular drift compensation in X and Y. Runs automatically before each burn job.

🪵

Wood Marking

Permanent marks on wood panels, plaques, and custom items. Product marking, serial numbering, artisan finishing.

Tool-Agnostic Pipeline

The SVG-to-motion pipeline doesn't know what's in the tool head. This is how it scales to drill bits and welding heads.

🏭

The Industrial Parallel

This is exactly the calibration challenge on a CNC machine when switching tool heads — the geometry changes, the offsets change, the work envelope changes.

Robot Ross solved it at proof-of-concept scale. The solution pattern is identical at industrial scale.

Pen → drill bit. The architecture is the same. This is not a concept. It is the production system running today.

Order Flow

From order to physical execution — five steps, fully logged.

Human customer, voice command, or AI agent — the same pipeline handles all of them.

01

Order Placed

A human via Shopify, a voice command, or an AI agent via Virtuals ACP places an order for a physical item.

02

Cloud Bridge Receives

The OpenClaw Cloud Bridge normalises the order regardless of which protocol or buyer type sent it.

03

Artist Worker Claims

The Mac Mini M4 polls the API queue, claims the order, and passes it to the local LLM for interpretation.

04

Robot Executes

The Huenit arm physically executes the task. Every action logged to the ATF ledger.

05

Proof + ATF Updated

A YouTube Short is generated. The proof portal redirects to it. The ATF wiki and ledger update automatically. Audit trail complete.

Tech Stack

A minimal, auditable stack — built to be replicated.

Cloud-side for the API gateway. On-premise for everything that touches data.

LayerComponentRole
Speech-to-TextOpenAI WhisperLocal transcription — voice in, intent out
Chat & NarrationApertus 7B (ETH/EPFL)Local Swiss open-weights — conversation, reasoning, Bob Ross narration
Text-to-SpeechMistral VoxtralExpressive voice synthesis — the personality
SVG GenerationClaude 3.5 HaikuComposition → precise SVG path coordinates
Physical ControlCustom Python ControllerWritten by Claude — drives Huenit arm from SVG to ink on canvas
ATF / WikiFlotilla Agent FleetGenerates and maintains the Technical File from code + logs
Calibration5-Point HomographyAngular drift compensation for pyrography and precision work
SecretsInfisical EUVault-first credential management — no .env files
OrchestrationOpenClaw + PocketBaseAlways-on coordination and operational state

Robot Ross is operational today.

Live demo at robotross.art. ATF deploying at api.robotross.art/atf.

Visit robotross.art → Experience EU Compliance → Contact Us