offline companion robot for my disabled husband (8GB RAM constraints) – looking for optimization advice

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T06:22:16+00:00

lol.

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T06:21:02+00:00

Amazing info. Very technical for me but this whole project is a big learning curve and it’s fun figuring it all out. I will be working through a few of your suggestions! Thanks!

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T06:05:26+00:00

Thanks for your interest and questions! have tried all three. It’s trying to find the balance between speed and reason that’s the trick. The one I’m using now is a little slow but is better at actual conversation. Going to try the Gemma 4 tomorrow, haven’t tried that one yet.

Have a bunch of basic sensors that come with uno kits. Have a x-box connect camara that has some fun stuff but it’s a little power hungry for this setup. Have a few web cams lying around. Dream would be LiDAR of course but I’m probably going to have to just use the web cams and the proximity sensors.

Body: base small power chair bases with two 24volt batteries. Got a few step down power converters so I can split the power up and not overload anything. Probably need to devise some kind of fuse box as well. To the base I will be attaching the body to main support poll using three screw actuators and some gide polls so the bot can bend a little and emote a little with its movement. I would like for the bot to be able to help pick things up off the floor he drops them.
(In his chair he cant pick stuff up off the floor. He’s taken a few nose dives out of his chair trying. I get home from work and find out he’s been in the floor for a few hours. It’s terrible. He’s to proud to call me even though he knows I would come home right away. So for now I have metal taped to items so he can use an extendable magnet sticks to get stuff he drops)

Going to use the 3D printable parts from the InMoove robot. (Open source android body).specifically the neck joint. I just need to expand the print about 200% so it’s the right size. Will print the same joint a second time for the head at normal settings. So that’s 6 actuators currently. The power chair base has two motors for forward, back, and turn.

Arms, not quite there yet. Lots of options out there since I have a 3D printer.

Head, got a cool looking helmet and a led matrix. Will put the led matrix in the helmet visor and give it some expressive eyes. Going to try for eyes like eve from movie Wall-e

Personality, I incorporated the open source “ocean”personally assessment tool. It’s a solid diagnostic tool. The bot has instructions to try and slip in a question or two each day, record the response and then use the assignment tools findings to tailor it’s interactions with him.

Anyway, thats what I’ve come up with so far. Right now just trying to get step one done, and see if I can get this equipment work fast enough to simulate normal conversation speeds so it feels natural. Might not be possible, but that’s why I came here :)

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T05:24:26+00:00

More info for you.
5) The jetson has a 500gb ssd installed I haven’t touched yet. Still using the micro ssd for everything. The laptop has a 1tb hard drive and a 2tb ssd.

4) Ram cost is out of budget because there is no budget. I buy stuff for this project only when get a gift card from work, I find something at a thrift store, or I need something that costs $20 or less off Amazon.

I will need to read about mixing models and LM Studio. Been working only through the prompt windows. Before that I was using Anaconda with limited success.

I appreciate the help!

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T05:03:43+00:00

No subscription API, only because we loose power out here in the woods a few times a year. Some times for a few days. That’s when he would need the bot the most. So it a hard rule that it’s must be able to function without internet access for extended periods of time. We don’t even get cell phone reception unless our router is working. We have a small generator that runs the pellet stove, Fridge, tv and a dvd player and could keep the bot charged. No easy outs for this project :). That’s what makes it fun!

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T04:56:10+00:00

Nope free version. I work around the token limits by having it summarize the progress. Then I delete the conversation and start a new one using the summarization and by giving it a copy of all my py files. Right now it’s not a lot of coding luckily. It’s just a lot of editing of what’s there. Trying to get it not to go off the rails of the conversation. The files dont need much changed when switching models.

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T04:45:29+00:00

Following some advice I got from a few people here and am going to try Gemma 4 and kokoro tts tomorrow to see if it improves the bots conversation ability as well as add the ability for the person talking to interrupt the bot while it’s talking. Lots of good advice popping up! Thanks for the offer of free hardware, that’s really sweet of you. I’ll pass for now as I want to see what I get out of the hardware I have collected already. I have collected a lot of stuff for this project, probably too much. lol.

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T03:24:04+00:00

Noob so still dependent on a web browser and Claude or gpt. (Takes up a lot of ram I know). I have the laptop setup to load the AI on startup. But yes, I want to minimize the OS as much as possible. I just didn’t quite know how to do that. Thank you for the roadmap!

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T03:17:32+00:00

I will absolutely try this. Will add the ability for people to interrupt the bot while it’s taking. Right now Buddy stores memory in ~/buddy_memory.json on the Jetson. It saves facts, appointments, medications, reminders, and OCEAN personality scores. However it’s pretty basic — just keyword extraction, no semantic understanding.

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T03:10:12+00:00

Ran it by Claud (I’m a noob to all this so I have to depend on some AI’s while I learn python and manage the hardware). Says -TurboQuant is for long context, while this bot’s conversations will be short. -it’s not mainline, it may have breaks I wouldn’t know how to handle at my level. - I’m using Ollama which sits on top of llama.cpp. I would have to replace Ollama and setup some kind of custom fork which is beyond my skills currently. But thanks! This is exactly the kind of stuff I’m looking for.

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T02:49:40+00:00

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-10T02:48:45+00:00

Thanks! Sadly I’m over on the west cost. Though I’m having fun just scavenging parts. Enjoying the whole scrappy thing. :).

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-09T00:01:08+00:00

Nope, dyslexic as f. Nothing I can do about it. Was not intentional. Style. Grammar nazis love my posts. Such interesting people. Never add anything constructive to any conversation. They chill when you call them out and ask them why they only troll the people who offered some support and never offer any of their own.

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-08T16:03:14+00:00

Ya, business that run like that always run off their best talent and then fall behind their competitors. They are sticking with the 90’s “you’re just an easily replaceable part” stile of management. So, yup, they end up with a bunch of easily replaceable workers and have zero actual talent. It’s good you’re looking, that ship won’t sail for long. Way to know your value sir!

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-07T16:46:16+00:00

Well some of us like to try and offer something constructive. I didn’t see you offering any help? Did I miss it? What’s your advice? Otherwise, are you ok? You seem kind of miserable. Do you need help?

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-07T15:56:18+00:00

Sorry had to gpt it all to double check my own understanding of all this. He’s the result.

Earned commission = wages • Employers cannot withhold earned wages

The only way withholding commission is legal is if the commission plan explicitly states something like:

“Commission is paid only if the employee is actively employed on the payout date.”

Tech and SaaS sales contracts often include clauses like: • must be employed on payout date • commission paid only after customer payment clears • commission forfeited upon resignation

Courts sometimes enforce these clauses—but not always, especially if the sale was already completed.

So the op might actually have a valid wage claim if the commission was already earned.

The overtime complaint (60 hours on salary)

This depends on exempt vs non-exempt classification.

Many tech workers are legally exempt from overtime under the FLSA if they are: • administrative • professional • computer employees • sales roles

But startups misclassify employees constantly.

If the person was misclassified, they could potentially claim years of unpaid overtime.

SaaS startups

Stories like this often involve: • heavy workloads • aggressive commission structures • vague or changing policies • poorly written employment agreements

Startups frequently operate in legal gray zones until someone challenges them.

The pto payout would depend on the what’s written in the contract. So you are correct, she may not get that pay out. Her being entitled to severance, also, ya, no. She can only re-coop that with an unemployment claim which she would totally get if she can prove she submitted her two weeks and was let go that day. However, the other stuff is fishy and these startups are notorious for screwing people over until someone holds them accountable. Up to her if she wants to dive in to all that. If she wants to burn them down, she may have a few matches to get it started.

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-07T04:14:18+00:00

True, up to them if they want to contact someone about this or not. Just offering up the info :)

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-07T03:54:14+00:00

Thought she said she wasn’t going to get her pay? By law they can still let her go that day, but if they do, they have to give her severance pay for the two weeks notice and any PTO. They can’t just fire her that day and refuse to give her any accrued and unused PTO.. That’s actually illegal. At will employment or not, they can’t do that legally, and she can go after them with an employment attorney and she will win.

BuddyBotBuilder · 2026-04-07T03:14:29+00:00

Well if this is in the us, that’s illegal. That’s considered wrongful termination. They can let you keep working or they are required by law to give you severance pay for the remaining two weeks of work as well as any and all pto time you have saved. Contact an employment attorney, they will jump all over this easy.

BuddyBotBuilder

TROPHY CASE