Bot4Less ESP32 Robot Antweight Controller

Description

Bot4Less is a compact ESP32-based robot controller designed with small combat robots and beginner-friendly robot projects in mind.

The board runs directly from a 2S LiPo battery and provides three brushed motor channels: two for the drive motors and a third for a simple brushed weapon. Each channel can handle up to 1.8 A peak, making the board suitable for small motors such as N20 gearmotors.

The integrated ESP32-WROOM-32E gives the controller plenty of flexibility. Robots can be controlled using a gamepad, the compatible custom ESP32-C3 remote over ESP-NOW, a phone over Bluetooth or console gamepads.

Other features include battery voltage monitoring, a servo output, support for up to four addressable RGB LEDs and a MOSFET-controlled main power switch. We recommend soldering the RGB LEDs as there’s no other indication. Or we can do that for you for an additional cost.

The controller was originally developed for the open-source Antweight Workshop for NTA 2026, a project for building a complete 3D-printed antweight combat robot. The complete hardware and software are available on GitHub, so you can also build, modify and program the controller yourself.

Features

• ESP32-WROOM-32E
• 2S LiPo operation, up to 8.4 V
• 3× brushed motor outputs
• 1.8 A peak per motor channel
• 56 mm x 32 mm x 10,5 mm
• 2× drive channels + 1× weapon channel
• Servo output (currently doesn’t fully work)*
• Battery voltage monitoring
• Up to 4× addressable RGB LEDs
• MOSFET-controlled power switch
• Bluetooth control
• Designed for small robots and antweights

*Important: The servo power is supplied through the onboard LDO, which has limited current capability and may not be suitable for most servos. Check the hardware documentation before connecting a servo.
Also, this board isn’t intended for serious robots as the bluetooth connection in busy areas like competitions tend to be wanky.

Open-source project

The complete project, including the PCB design, firmware, 3D-printed robot parts and assembly instructions, is available here:

Antweight Workshop 2026 – GitHub

The project is released under the MIT license.