Teresa loves AI. My 7-year-old daughter has spent countless hours chatting with ChatGPT and Claude, asking them about dinosaurs, unicorns, and why the sky is blue. She also loves building things - anything, really. So when these two interests collided in my head, the idea was obvious: what if we built her own little AI companion? A pocket-sized robot she could talk to anytime. I found a video tutorial on building a pocket AI assistant using a Raspberry Pi and the PiSugar Whisplay HAT. Perfect. A Christmas holiday project with my daughter. We've been watching WondLa together on Apple TV, and Teresa is fascinated by Muther - the nurturing robot who raises Eva, the main character. So our robot became Eva too. Named after the girl who grows up with a robot companion, it felt fitting that Teresa would now have her own. The Hardware The beauty of this project is that the hardware is essentially plug-and-play. Three components that stack together like a tiny sandwich: Raspberry Pi Zero 2W - The brain. Tiny, cheap, and just powerful enough to run our voice assistant. The "WH" variant comes with pre-soldered GPIO headers, which saves you from having to solder anything. PiSugar Whisplay HAT - This is where the magic happens. It's a HAT (Hardware Attached on Top) that includes a 1.69" LCD screen, a speaker, dual microphones, a button, and RGB LEDs. Everything you need for a voice assistant in one board. PiSugar 3 Battery - A 1200mAh rechargeable battery that clips onto the bottom. This is what makes it truly portable - no wires needed. Assembly was simple enough that Teresa helped. Stack the battery on the Pi, plug the Whisplay HAT on top, and you've got yourself a pocket-sized robot.

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