Community builds of Microduck

Pollen Robotics' $399 walking duck robot: open-source software, closed hardware

License

• software (pollen-robotics/microduck) and training code (microduck_rl): Apache 2.0
• 3D model files (microduck_rl STL meshes, also used by community replicas; credit Pollen Robotics): CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Split licensing. Microduck's software and its training code are Apache-2.0. Since 9 Oct 2026 Pollen Robotics licenses the robot's 3D model files (the STL meshes in microduck_rl) under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: non-commercial, with credit to Pollen Robotics, and shared changes keep the same licence. That also applies to replicas printed from those meshes. Pollen publishes no CAD, circuit boards or bill of materials for the robot itself. Checked 5 Nov 2026.

• A home-built Microduck on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W (AI-Fan (AI研究室-帆哥)): AI-Fan, of the YouTube channel AI-Fan AI研究室-帆哥, built a working Microduck at home and published the whole route, in Chinese, in a GitHub repository: a parts list around a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, a ROBOTIS OpenRB-150 servo board, 14 Dynamixel XL330 servos (ten in the legs, four in the head and neck), a BNO08x IMU and a 6 V battery pack; a ready-to-flash Raspberry Pi image with the walking policy and gamepad control; the servo IDs, wiring and first-run steps; and an mjlab setup to train the walk again. The repository's recordings show the robot walking, and the full build is a video tutorial on the channel. The tutorial's own code is MIT, but the printed parts come from Pollen Robotics' Microduck model files, which are licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0: build one for yourself, not to sell.