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pollen-robotics/microduck

Open-source Rust software that runs a tiny biped duck robot, covering motion control, gamepad, updates and camera streaming.

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What is it?

Microduck is the software stack for a small biped duck robot, about 25 cm tall and 800 g. It runs on a Rockchip RK3566 and is built from a set of daemons: robotd runs a 50 Hz control loop that drives fifteen servos from neural-network policies, while other daemons handle wifi and identity, Bluetooth, gamepad input, WebRTC camera streaming and a depth sensor.

The robot's locomotion policies are trained in a separate repository, microduck_rl, which uses MuJoCo and PPO and exports ONNX models that this repo loads. Updates are signed, health-checked and can be rolled back if a robot comes up unhealthy. Daemons communicate through one JSON-RPC contract over Unix sockets, so the app, console, gamepad and scripts all issue the same calls.

A MuJoCo-based simulator lets developers run the real daemons against a simulated body without hardware, and a cheat sheet documents the robot's command-line tool.

Key features

  • 01Runs a 50 Hz control loop driving fifteen servos from neural-network policies.
  • 02Loads ONNX policies exported from the microduck_rl training project.
  • 03Supports gamepad control and Bluetooth access from a laptop.
  • 04Streams the camera over WebRTC and reads a depth sensor.
  • 05Signed, health-gated software updates with rollback.

Use cases

  • Building or customizing a Microduck biped robot's control software.
  • Experimenting with sim-to-real reinforcement learning locomotion on a small legged robot.
  • Testing robot code in a MuJoCo simulator before running it on hardware.

Quick start

  1. 1

    Read the simulation guide

  2. 2

    Run the simulated duck without hardware

    scripts/duck-sim

Things to know

  • Runs on a specific robot built on a Rockchip RK3566 with fifteen servos, so most features need the physical duck.
  • The policies it loads are trained in a separate repository, microduck_rl.

Topics

#robotics#rust#reinforcement-learning#onnx#mujoco#embedded#biped-robot

FAQ

What is microduck?
Open-source Rust software that runs a tiny biped duck robot, covering motion control, gamepad, updates and camera streaming. Microduck is the software stack for a small biped duck robot, about 25 cm tall and 800 g. It runs on a Rockchip RK3566 and is built from a set of daemons: robotd runs a 50 Hz control loop that drives fifteen servos from neural-network policies, while other daemons handle wifi and identity, Bluetooth, gamepad input, WebRTC camera streaming and a depth sensor.
Is microduck free to use? What license does it have?
microduck is open source under the Apache-2.0 license. Check the license terms before using it in commercial products.
Is microduck still maintained?
Actively maintained. The last commit to microduck was on Oct 19, 2026.
What can I use microduck for?
Building or customizing a Microduck biped robot's control software. Experimenting with sim-to-real reinforcement learning locomotion on a small legged robot. Testing robot code in a MuJoCo simulator before running it on hardware.
How do I install microduck?
Read the simulation guide Run the simulated duck without hardware: scripts/duck-sim
Where can I get microduck?
The source code and installation instructions are on GitHub: https://github.com/pollen-robotics/microduck

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