Hardware verifiedmanipulationv1.0.0Apache-2.0

Autonomous Ground Pick

One-shot crouching behavior that reaches beak to the floor to pick up objects with its articulated mouth gripper, then smoothly returns to stand.

By Pollen Robotics @pollen-robotics

MicroDuck picking up small object from the floor with its beak

About this behavior

Triggered via gamepad 'A' button or RPC call. Driven by a phase parameter [cos(2pi*t), sin(2pi*t), 0] fed into the velocity command channels over a 3.5-second gesture window. Coordinates beak opening, deep leg squat, and pitch compensation so the soft beak contacts the ground reliably without tipping.

Runtime contract

61-dimension input · 14 joint targets · 50 Hz

Show details

50 Hz / 4×slot: groundpick

Observation vector61 dimensions · normalizer baked in

Proprioception48D

Positions, velocities, previous actions, gravity, and gyro.

Twist command3D

Forward, lateral, and yaw velocity intent.

Head pose4D

Neck and head orientation targets.

Body pose6D

Six-axis torso offset command.

Action targetsscale: 1×

Left leg5 joints

hip yaw · hip roll · hip pitch · knee · ankle

Neck & head4 joints

neck pitch · head pitch · yaw · roll

Right leg5 joints

hip yaw · hip roll · hip pitch · knee · ankle

Actuator model: Dynamixel XL330 (BAM M6 voltage control law). The beak motor is separate from this fixed locomotion action space.

Verification

Status: Hardware verified
Evidence: Verified on physical MicroDuck hardware picking up objects from carpet and hard flooring with the beak gripper.
Target hardware: MicroDuck v1 (Rockchip RK3566, 14 Dynamixel XL330-M077 + Beak Gripper)
Simulation: mjlab (MuJoCo Warp) at 50 Hz
Note: Executes on 3.5s phase clock (phase advances 1/5.0 per sec, ends at 0.7 phase).

Compatibility

Robot model: microduck-standard
MJCF model: robot_allcollisions.xml
Terrain: flat
Required accessories: None — standard duck setup

Run it on your duck

Use the canonical model and this policy slot to try the behavior locally.

slot: groundpick

Try the simulation first. Hardware testing assumes a matching Microduck, clear space, and a safe surface. uDuck does not guarantee that a community policy is safe to run.

Deployment stepsShow instructions

1 Download the ONNX model alpha_ground_pick.onnx

curl -L "https://huggingface.co/spaces/pollen-robotics/microduck-simulator/resolve/main/app/public/policies/alpha_ground_pick.onnx" -o "/opt/robot/policies/alpha_ground_pick.onnx"

2 Add the policy to robotd

[policy]
groundpick = "/opt/robot/policies/alpha_ground_pick.onnx"

3 Restart the control loop

sudo systemctl restart robotd
robotctl health

⌁ Try it in simulation

uv run scripts/infer_policy.py --groundpick alpha_ground_pick.onnx --new-cmd-obs

Sources

Upstream repositorypollen-robotics/microduck Training codeMjlab-GroundPick-Flat-MicroDuck Interactive simulatorhttps://huggingface.co/spaces/pollen-robotics/microduck-simulator