# Robot Rave

> A music reactive Raspberry Pi robot built during a London hardware hackathon.

- Canonical page: [https://www.sergiopesch.com/projects/robot-rave](https://www.sergiopesch.com/projects/robot-rave)
- Content type: project
- Published: 2026-01-21
- Content updated: 2026-07-13
- Repository created: 2026-01-21
- Repository updated: 2026-01-26
- Author: [Sergio Peschiera](https://www.sergiopesch.com/about)
- Topics: Raspberry Pi, Python, Robotics, Audio analysis
- Source code: [https://github.com/sergiopesch/robot-rave-](https://github.com/sergiopesch/robot-rave-)

## Content

![Ravitto](/images/ravitto.webp)

Dancing robot. Hackathon chaos.

***

## The Story

The SoTa & Cocoa Robot Rave Hackathon in London, January 2026. 24 hours. A room full of makers. One goal: build something that dances to music.

Ravitto was born.

## What We Built

A music reactive robot that:
* Analyzes audio in real time
* Moves servos to the beat
* Displays expressive animations on LED matrix eyes
* Actually looks like it's vibing

**Stack:** Raspberry Pi, Python, Servos, LED Matrix, FFT for beat detection

## Key Learnings

**1. Hackathons are about shipping, not perfection**

We had grand plans for complex choreography. Shipped simple head bob and arm wave that actually worked. Better than ambitious and broken.

**2. Hardware debugging is brutal under time pressure**

Loose servo connection killed 2 hours. Always test mechanical connections first, then write code.

**3. Personality comes from the eyes**

The LED matrix "eyes" made Ravitto feel alive. Same movements without eyes looked mechanical. With eyes, it looked like it was having fun.

**4. Teams matter**

Solo, I would've given up at 3am. With a team, we pushed through and had something to demo.

***

## Agent Quick Start

```
# Robot Rave: Ravitto

Music reactive dancing robot built at London hackathon.

## Components
* Raspberry Pi (brain)
* Servo motors (movement)
* LED matrix (eyes/expressions)
* Microphone (audio input)

## Tech
* Python for control
* FFT for beat detection
* PWM for servo control

## Key Files
* main.py: Main control loop
* audio.py: Beat detection
* movement.py: Dance patterns
* eyes.py: LED expressions

```

## Provenance and freshness

This is a first party account by the project author. Page content was last updated on 2026-07-13. The linked repository last changed on 2026-01-26. Linked repositories and live services may change independently.

### Primary sources

- [Source code](https://github.com/sergiopesch/robot-rave-)