Columbia Pacbot

This is the software used at competition for Columbia University Robotics Club's PacBot.

Clone the repo with git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/FlyN-Nick/Pacbot-2026.git.

What's in the repository

Directory	Purpose	Main technologies
server/	Competition game server, game engine, and WebSocket/TCP communication	Go
bot_client/	Pacbot client and high-level decision algorithms	Python
web_client/	Browser visualizer and console for the competition game	Svelte, Vite
low_level/	Microcontroller firmware and robot communication/driving documentation	Arduino/C++
dashboard/	Physical robot telemetry and control dashboard, with its own server and web app	Go, React, Vite

Run the game locally

The following setup runs the game server, bot simulation without a physical robot, and browser visualizer. Open a separate terminal for each process.

Requirements

• Go 1.22 or newer
• Python 3.10 or newer and uv
• Node.js 18 or newer and npm

1. Start the game server

cd server
go run .

2. Start the bot in simulation mode

cd bot_client
uv sync
uv run python pacbotClient.py --force_no_bot

To use a DQN, supply your own compatible checkpoint file:

cd bot_client
uv sync --extra dqn
uv run --extra dqn python pacbotClient.py --strategy dqn --checkpoint /absolute/path/to/checkpoint.pt --force_no_bot

3. Start the game visualizer

cd web_client
npm install
npm run dev

Open the local URL printed by Vite.

Physical robot dashboard

The dashboard's backend listens for robot UDP packets on port 9000 and serves the web app plus a WebSocket on port 8765 by default.

Build the frontend:

cd dashboard/webapp
npm install
npm run build

Then run the dashboard backend, which serves the built frontend from ../webapp/dist by default:

cd dashboard/server
go run .

Open http://localhost:8765. For frontend development with Vite’s hot reload, run npm run dev in dashboard/webapp; its /ws proxy expects the backend at localhost:8765.

The dashboard can also use a Unix domain socket for local direction-command IPC. See the backend flags (go run . -h) and dashboard/ for implementation details. Hardware Wi-Fi and UDP settings are configured in the firmware; see the robot protocol.

Working on a component

• Game server: server README, server/game/, and config.json.
• Sample bot: bot client README. The client supports A* and DQN strategies; DQN runs require a compatible checkpoint. Use uv run python pacbotClient.py --help to see options.
• Game visualizer: web client README. npm run host exposes Vite on the network; npm run prod creates a static build.
• Robot firmware: low_level/RPiPacBot/, including the UDP protocol and driving behavior.
• Robot dashboard: dashboard/server/ and dashboard/webapp/.