Show HN: I built an AI agent that turns ROS 2's turtlesim into a digital artist

Summary

Project Overview turtlesim_agent is an AI agent that transforms the classic ROS turtlesim simulator into a creative canvas driven by natural language. Powered by LangChain, this AI agent interprets text-based instructions and translates them into visual drawings, turning the simulated turtle into a digital artist. This project explores how large language models can interact with external environments to exhibit creative behavior. Users can describe shapes or drawing intentions in plain English, and the AI agent reasons through the instructions to execute them using turtlesim's motion commands. TurtleSim Agent Demo 📐 Drawing Basic Shapes tsim_example_basic.mp4 🌈 Drawing a Rainbow Prompt used I want you to draw a rainbow composed of 7 semi-circular arcs, each with a different color and a radius ranging from 2.0 cm to 2.7 cm. The colors should follow the traditional rainbow order: violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red with the pen's width of 5. Please offset the starting position of each semi-circle by 0.1 cm to avoid overlap. tsim_eample.mp4 Note: This demo was generated using the gemini-2.0-flash model. Please note that results may vary even when using the same model, due to the non-deterministic nature of language models. Outputs may differ depending on factors like prompt phrasing, timing, or model updates. 🛠 Getting Started Requirements ROS 2 Humble Hawksbill (This project has only been tested with ROS 2 Humble. Compatibility with other ROS 2 distributions is not guaranteed.) Python 3.10+ Other dependencies as listed in requirements.txt 1. Clone and build in a ROS2 workspace $ cd ~ /{ROS_WORKSPACE}/src $ git clone -b humble-devel https://github.com/Yutarop/turtlesim_agent.git $ python3 -m pip install -r turtlesim_agent/requirements.txt $ cd ~ /{ROS_WORKSPACE} && colcon build 2. API Key Setup turtlesim_agent supports multiple language model providers via LangChain. You need to set API keys for the providers you intend to use. 🔐 Add API Keys to Your Shell...