Talking Terminal Buddy

Chatbots answer what you say by looking for key words. In this project MIEO becomes a simple chatbot. It listens for a few seconds through your computer's microphone, turns what you said into text with Speech Sense, and looks for words it knows: hello, name, joke and dance. Then it answers in a speech bubble on the stage and pulls a face to match. Speech Sense runs on your computer, with no internet, so nothing you say leaves the room.

• How a simple chatbot works: listening, then looking for key words
• Checking whether text contains a word with “contains”
• Giving a different answer for each key word with “if … else”
• Taking turns in a conversation with a loop

• Mieo board
• Battery
• 3D-printed mountings
• Screws and screwdriver
• A computer with a microphone
• A USB cable, or Bluetooth on your computer
• The Robolab app (free)
• A microphone (most laptops have one built in)

1. Fit the battery to the Mieo board if it isn't there already, and switch MIEO on.
2. Connect MIEO to your computer with a USB cable or over Bluetooth, and stand it beside the screen.
3. Check your computer's microphone works, and find a quiet spot.

1. Open Robolab, choose Mieo, connect and set the switch at the top right to Arena. Add the Speech Sense extension and make a variable called heard.
2. Start with “when green flag clicked” and “show happy”, then a “forever” loop with “say Your turn! I'm listening.” and “listen for up to 5 seconds” inside.
3. Add “set heard to (heard words)”, then “forget heard words”, ready for next time.
4. Add a chain of “if … else” blocks using “heard contains hello?” from Operators. Hello: “say Hello! I'm MIEO. for 3 seconds” and “show happy”.
5. Name: “say My name is MIEO. What's yours? for 3 seconds” and “show nerd”. Joke: “say Why did the robot go on holiday? To recharge its batteries! for 3 seconds” and “show dude”.
6. Dance: “show disco pattern” and “say Watch my lights! for 3 seconds”. In the last else: “show think” and “say” with “join I heard: (heard)” for 3 seconds.
7. Click the green flag, allow the microphone, and say hello when MIEO says it's your turn.

Arena mode: the program runs on your computer and talks to MIEO live over USB or Bluetooth, so keep MIEO switched on and connected.

when green flag clicked
show [happy v]
forever
  say (Your turn! I'm listening.)
  listen for up to (5) seconds
  set [heard v] to (heard words)
  forget heard words
  if <(heard) contains (hello) ?> then
    say (Hello! I'm MIEO.) for (3) seconds
    show [happy v]
  else
    if <(heard) contains (name) ?> then
      say (My name is MIEO. What's yours?) for (3) seconds
      show [nerd v]
    else
      if <(heard) contains (joke) ?> then
        say (Why did the robot go on holiday? To recharge its batteries!) for (3) seconds
        show [dude v]
      else
        if <(heard) contains (dance) ?> then
          show [disco v] pattern
          say (Watch my lights!) for (3) seconds
        else
          show [think v]
          say (join (I heard:) (heard)) for (3) seconds
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

Click the green flag. The Mieo sprite says “Your turn! I'm listening.” Say “hello” and it answers “Hello! I'm MIEO.” with a smile. Ask “what's your name?” and it introduces itself, “tell me a joke” gets a joke, and “dance” sets off disco lights on MIEO. Say something else and it tells you what it heard, then it's your turn again.

If it doesn't work

• It always says “I heard:” with nothing after it? Speak during the five seconds after “Your turn!”, close to the microphone.
• It hears the wrong words? Speak clearly in a quiet room, and keep to short sentences.
• It gives the hello answer when you ask its name? It checks hello first. If you say both words, the first match wins.

1. Easy: change MIEO's answers and faces to give it your own personality.
2. Medium: add more key words, such as “weather” or “music”, with answers of their own.
3. Hard: remember the person's name: when they say “my name is”, keep the last word in a variable and use it in later answers.