The DIY Alternative to Microduck

Pollen Robotics showed off Microduck last month, which packs some very capable hardware into an adorable little robot duck. Unfortunately, anyone hoping to get their hands on one will have to wait until later this year. Luwu Dynamics decided that was too long, so it created XGO Duck, an open-source alternative that you can build yourself right now.

XGO Duck borrows the duck-shaped body, 15-servo joint layout, and joint order from Microduck, but uses different electronics. At the core of the robot is an Arduino UNO Q, which combines a Qualcomm processor running Linux with an STM32 microcontroller. This gives the duck enough computing power for higher-level software and a microcontroller for lower-level, real-time hardware control.

Movement comes from 15 FeeTech 1910 servos distributed throughout the body. These articulate the legs, feet, neck, head, and other joints needed to bring the little bird to life. Luwu Dynamics has also released walking, get-up, and pick policies, along with the UNO Q firmware and a web interface, in a separate runtime repository.

Sitting on top of the UNO Q is a custom expansion board designed specifically for the robot. It handles power distribution and the servo bus while adding a QMI8658A six-axis IMU for motion sensing. The board also includes 5 V and 3.3 V regulation, serial buffers, servo connectors, a power switch, DC jack, and battery connector.

Most of the mechanical parts can be made on a 3D printer. The repository includes STL files for the body, legs, head, neck, and other components, with separate models for left and right parts where necessary. The soles of the feet and mouth are intended to be printed in a flexible TPU. A collection of bearings and a rather large pile of M2 screws hold everything together.

The project includes the complete expansion board schematic and PCB design, the bill of materials, pick-and-place data, and an illustrated assembly guide. So, if you don’t want to wait for Microduck, you now have another option. Take a look at the GitHub repository for more details.