Open-source ESP32 desk robot project pairs local speech tools with a Hermes agent

A builder says they open-sourced a desk-based voice AI agent on October 9, 2026. It links an ESP32 desk robot to a Hermes agent through xiaozhi-server, with Parakeet speech recognition and Kokoro text-to-speech running locally. The builder says it can manage Google Tasks and reminders by voice, give spoken progress updates, ask aloud before risky commands and stay in the conversation until the user says “bye.”