Microduck documentation
Documentation for Microduck, the 25 cm open-source biped robot: the hardware, the Python SDK, the simulator and the reinforcement-learning stack.
Microduck is a 25 cm open-source biped robot. It stands, walks, kicks, grabs and gets back up, and every one of those moves is a policy you can retrain. This is the entry point to the documentation: what is on the robot, how to reach it from code, how to run it in simulation and how to train a new policy.
The robot
- 25 cm tall, about 800 g
- 15 motors
- Camera, LiDAR and two IMUs
- 50 Hz onboard policy loop
- Seven moves shipped trained: standing up, sitting and standing, walking, turning, kicking, driving and grabbing
In the box: the robot, a battery, a USB-C cable and a game controller.
Software and SDK
The robot is programmed from Python. The SDK exposes the motors and the sensors, and it lets you either command individual joints or hand control to a trained policy:
- Connect to the robot and read its state
- Command joint positions and whole-body poses
- Start, stop and swap policies
- Read the camera, the LiDAR and the IMUs
The source is public at github.com/pollen-robotics/microduck:
git clone https://github.com/pollen-robotics/microduckSimulator
The simulator runs the same robot, so a policy can be trained and broken without touching the hardware. It is also the fastest way to see whether the toolchain works on your machine before a robot arrives.
The hosted simulator is available as a Hugging Face Space: pollen-robotics/microduck-simulator.
Reinforcement learning
Each shipped move was trained with reinforcement learning and then transferred to the hardware. To train your own:
- Start a policy in the simulator and confirm it stands before anything else.
- Change the reward for the behaviour you want - a gait, a turn, a recovery - and run the training.
- Randomise what the simulator randomises, so the policy does not depend on one exact setup.
- Move the policy to the robot and expect to tune it: sim-to-real is the work, not the last step.
Getting a robot
Pre-orders are open. Microduck is $399 before taxes and shipping, in four colourways, with optional Charger, Dev and Accessory packs:
- Pre-order MicroDuck
- Buy Microduck - price, payment and buying FAQ
- Microduck pre-order guide
Community
Questions, policies and videos end up in the Pollen Robotics Discord: discord.com/invite/pollen-community.