The Stanford Pupper Is a Quadruped Robot That’s Powered by Pi

Quadrupeds like Boston Dynamics’ BigDog and Spot have proven that four-legged robots can be useful for a variety of tasks, including transporting materials over any terrain. The downside to those robots is that they are incredibly expensive to manufacture. The Stanford Robotics Club has developed a scaled-down version that costs significantly less at around $600 to $900 if you already have the tools.

Known as the Stanford Pupper, the robopup is capable of running, walking, trotting, and hopping around, and was designed for robot enthusiasts from grades K to 12 and beyond.

According to Stanford, “You can buy most of the parts directly from a reseller like Amazon or McMaster-Carr, but for some, you’ll need to get them custom manufactured for you. The custom parts include the carbon fiber routed parts, 3D-printed parts, the power distribution printed circuit board, and the motors. The BOM spreadsheet goes into much more detail.”

In its current form, the Stanford Pupper features a carbon fiber and 3D-printed frame that need to be cut using a router, although users can order pre-cut parts on Plastic Spider. The Pupper is driven by a dozen JX-Servo CLS6336HV servos and is powered by a 5200mAh 2S LiPo battery with a custom PCB that distributes that power to the servos.

The quadruped robot is outfitted with a Raspberry Pi 4 that runs custom code that translates inputs from a PS4 controller for movement. The Stanford Robotics Club has uploaded the complete build instructions, BOM, and CAD files to their Google Docs page for those interested in assembling their own.