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pollen-robotics/microduck

A Tiny biped duck robot 🦆

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README.md

<h1 align="center">Microduck</h1>

A tiny biped robot that moves using reinforcement learning policies.

<a href="https://pollen-robotics.com/microduck">Get yours here</a> ·
 <a href="docs/robot/cheatsheet.md">Cheat sheet</a> ·
 <a href="https://github.com/pollen-robotics/microduck_rl">Training the policies</a> ·
 <a href="docs/design/architecture.md">How it works</a> ·
 <a href="CONTRIBUTING.md">Contributing</a>

---

**This repo is the duck's brain.** About 25 cm and 800 g of robot, run by a handful of daemons on a
Rockchip RK3566: a 50 Hz control loop driving fifteen servos from neural policies, the radios and
the camera, and the update machinery that gets new software onto a robot without bricking it.

Everything you need to run a Microduck is here. **If you want one,
[get yours here](https://pollen-robotics.com/microduck).**

The policies it runs are trained next door, in
**[microduck_rl](https://github.com/pollen-robotics/microduck_rl)** — MuJoCo and PPO, the sim2real
recipe, and the export to ONNX that this repo loads.

## It does things

</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It walks. Pick up a gamepad and drive.</td>
<td>It rolls. Put wheels on, ask for roller mode, and it loads the other brain.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="50%">
 <video src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/7e70c1da-e120-428f-ae0b-f4de62f25984" controls width="100%"></video>
</td>
<td width="50%">
 <video src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/3eef63a5-6f84-47cf-90de-e717e6d7f8f0" controls width="100%"></video>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>It picks things up. Beak to the floor, one button.</td>
<td>It gets back up. Knock it over and it stands itself up.</td>
</tr>
</table>

It also sits, kicks a ball, rolls forward on command, and quacks in a voice that is its own.

## Where to find things

### You have a duck

| | |
|---|---|
| [Cheat sheet](docs/robot/cheatsheet.md) | Every `robotctl` command: drive, configure, voice, chorale, theremin, wifi, updates, logs. Start here. |
| [Gamepad](docs/robot/cheatsheet.md#gamepad-configd) | The full button mapping, and pairing a pad — [once per pad](docs/robot/pair-a-gamepad.md), plus what to do when it will not bond. |
| [`duckctl`](docs/robot/duckctl.md) | The robot from a laptop over Bluetooth, with no network and no ssh. |
| [Updates](docs/robot/cheatsheet.md#updates-updaterd) | Install, roll back, pin. Every update is verified, health-gated and reversible. |

### You are building on it

| | |
|---|---|
| [microduck_rl](https://github.com/pollen-robotics/microduck_rl) | Where the policies come from: MuJoCo, PPO, domain randomisation, and the ONNX export this repo loads. |
| [How it works](docs/design/architecture.md) | The whole system on one page — the daemons, the bus, how an update reaches a robot — then a page per part. |
| [Set up a dev board](docs/robot/install-dev.md) | From a blank board to a robot that takes branch builds. |
| [Dev cheat sheet](docs/robot/cheatsheet-dev.md) | Branch builds, release candidates, driving from a laptop, and the restart traps after an update. |
| [Push your branch](docs/robot/dev-push.md) | Build on your machine, install over ssh, about a minute. |
| [The simulated duck](docs/robot/simulation.md) | No robot on the desk? `scripts/duck-sim` runs the real daemons against a body in MuJoCo — one duck in a window, or four as machines you log into. |
| [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) | Building, testing, layout, conventions, releasing. |
| [Docs index](docs/README.md) | Everything, including the design pages and the open problems. |

## Under the hood

Rust, no framework, one workspace. `robotd` owns the control loop and the motor bus; `updaterd`
installs signed releases and rolls them back when a robot comes up unhealthy; `configd` owns wifi
and identity; `btd` is the Bluetooth path a phone uses; `padd` reads the gamepad; `mediad` streams
the camera over WebRTC; `tofd` serves the depth sensor. They talk over one JSON-RPC contract on
Unix sockets, and every client — the app, the console, the gamepad, your script — sends exactly the
same calls.

The interesting decisions are written down: [`docs/design/`](docs/design/) is why things are the
way they are, and [`docs/project/`](docs/project/) is what has gone wrong and what would close it.

## A note on ducks

No duck was harmed in the making of this robot. Several were consulted.

Repository info

Default branch: main
Latest version: daemon-v0.17.4
Created: 2026-07-29
Last activity: 2026-10-16
License: Apache-2.0
Open issues: 42
Watchers: 58

Contributors

pierre-rouanet

975 contributions

apirrone

281 contributions

Drenayaz

56 contributions

Nixxx19

23 contributions

hadelan

12 contributions