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QuadrupedStanford Student Robotics / Hands-On Robotics2024US

Pupper v3

Open-source educational quadruped developed through Stanford courses, with brushless motors, a Raspberry Pi 5 and a reinforcement-learning locomotion policy out of the box.

activeDIYL1 Compiledbuildable

Difficulty index

7.6/13
7.6
Index breakdown
Classquadruped+3.5
Cost$2,043 BOM+1.3
DOF12 DOF+1.2
Parts443 parts+1.6
How the index works

Specimen photographs

4 items
  • Pupper v3 studio render, three-quarter front view
    Studio render of the published MJCF, keyframe pose from the model. Geometry only; colours are the model's own materials.Rendered by Hyperspawn from G-Levine/pupper_v3_description (MIT) · Hyperspawn render · source
  • Pupper v3 studio render, side view
    Side view of the same MJCF render, keyframe pose from the model.Rendered by Hyperspawn from G-Levine/pupper_v3_description (MIT) · Hyperspawn render · source
  • 4 s turntable of the MJCF studio render.Rendered by Hyperspawn from G-Levine/pupper_v3_description (MIT) · Hyperspawn render · source
  • Completed Pupper v3 quadruped standing, turquoise printed parts
    From the pupper-v3 documentation.Hands-On Robotics (pupper-v3-documentation) · AGPL-3.0 · source

Spec card

7/13 known
Degrees of freedom
12
Mass
3 kg
BOM total
$2,043 · 27/33 lines priced
Part count
443
Actuators
GIM4305 400 W brushless motors
Compute
Raspberry Pi 5
Sensors
Luxonis SR depth camera

Not in the registry: height, payload, speed, runtime, battery, price. Left blank rather than guessed.

What you learn building it

  • +Gait generation
  • +State estimation from an IMU
  • +Sim-to-real policy transfer
  • +High-current power and motor drivers
  • +FDM 3D printing: 29 parts
  • +Laser cutting: 1 part
  • +Tools used: ST-Link V2, JST SH kit to make a 7-pin cable, STM32CubeProgrammer, 3/4-pin JST SH cable, CP2102 USB-UART adapter (must be CP2102), Windows PC with Steadywin Motor Wizard, FDM printer with a 0.6 mm nozzle, Soldering iron at 250 °C +8
  • +21 assembly steps across 9 subassemblies
  • +Flashing firmware for Control board Rev 3.5, two STM32 MCUs: SPIneV1.elf via ST-Link V2 / STM32CubeProgrammer, 12 x Steadywin GIM4305 SHS drivers: vendor firmware .elf via ST-Link, parameters and CAN ID via Steadywin Motor Wizard over CP2102 UART, Raspberry Pi 5: pupOS image (PiOS + ROS 2 Jazzy + pupperv3-monorepo)
  • +Testing in simulation (URDF/MJCF) before touching hardware
  • +Running published learned policies

Openness

100/100
  • publicCAD
  • publicBOM
  • publicFirmware
  • publicSim model
  • publicSoftware
  • publicPolicies

Score 100/100 computed from what is public: CAD 25, BOM 20, sim 20, firmware 15, software 10, policies 10. Software license: AGPL-3.0 AND GPL-3.0 AND MIT.

Repos & models

URDF ↗
DocsBuy

Build it

Has an ORP build package.
BOM total
$2,043
Lines priced
27/33
Parts
443
Steps
21
Version
0.1.0

6 lines have no price yet, so the real total is higher.

Largest BOM lines

Largest bill of materials lines
PartQtyUnit
Steadywin GIM4305 with SHS driver (select the 'Pupper v3 version' so drivers come pre-flashed)GIM430512$110
DeWalt 20 V POWERSTACK battery 1.7 Ah2$50
Raspberry Pi 5, 8 GBSC11121$80
Waveshare 4 x 4 in HDMI Raspberry Pi screen (face display; ships with the HDMI to micro HDMI adapter)1$75.99
PS5 wireless controller1$75
[Optional] Raspberry Pi AI Kit (Hailo-8L); the build slides install it1$70
[Optional] Arducam IMX296 global shutter cameraIMX2961$62
Pi hat control board Rev 3.5 (custom PCBA, needs a BNO086 IMU; firmware SPIneV1)1$60

Fabrication

  • FDM 3D printing29
  • Laser cutting1
Firmware repo
  • Upstream pins: HandsOnRobotics/pupper-v3-documentation@c25c91d54f09a1ed202b9cd9a3b13b33f09c0df2 (2025-10-20), readthedocs latest as of 2026-09-25; Google Sheets BOM tab 'v3.5' exported 2026-09-25; Google Slides 'Pupper Build Instructions' and motor flashing Google Doc exported 2026-09-25; Nate711/pupperv3-monorepo@6f96c5e79faa05492992c19918f8cd90b9243281 (2026-07-25); Nate711/pupperv3-mjx@684932a451819584847b10e5c9aec546443a9462 (2025-10-17); G-Levine/pupper_v3_description@1a3c8590189d3a406219d155f4177afc491a7d77 (2024-11-08)
  • BOM totals (v3.5 tab): $2,158.91 all lines, $1,785.91 'min cost'. The docs index says about $2,000; the StanfordQuadruped README says roughly $1,000 BOM (older figure). The 12 motors are $1,320 of that.
  • USD figures are the BOM's approximate line totals; per-unit prices here are those totals divided by quantity (motors: 12 x $105 + $60). Cable and sleeving lines have no price.
  • Several items the build slides install as standard are marked [Optional] in the BOM (AI kit, M.2 adapter, camera, lens, speaker, ear servos, microphone).
  • The motor driver firmware, control board firmware (SPIneV1.elf), Motor Wizard and pupOS image are Google Drive downloads with no source repo; build instructions and the motor flashing guide are Google Slides/Docs, so they can change without version history visible here.
  • Custom PCBs need a JLCPCB PCBA order with the BNO086 global-sourced; the docs call this 'a little tricky'. Motors bought as the AIFitLab 'Pupper v3 version' skip the driver flashing.
  • Kits: Present Perfection (US, run by the project's kit builder) and AIFitLab (China, unaffiliated) per the docs; neither is a BOM line here.
  • The DeWalt pack has no low-voltage cutoff on the robot; the docs say not to run longer than 40 minutes. Motors get hot after long runs.
  • The build slides contain a 'TODO COME BACK TO THIS' note at the screen pogo-pin step, and a few screw callouts differ (e.g. M2.5x8 text vs M2.5x10 label on the abduction bracket).
  • Licenses: pupper-v3-documentation AGPL-3.0; pupperv3-monorepo and pupperv3-mjx GPL-3.0; pupper_v3_description MIT. CAD is a public Onshape/Fusion share with no stated licence.
  • Default password in the docs is `rhea123`; change it.

Simulate

Load it in the browser simulator and train a policy before building.

Open on humanoidrobots.training ↗

Next rung

Z-Bot (Zeroth Bot) →K-Scale Labs · humanoid · index 8.4

No buildable class sits between quadrupeds and humanoids yet, so the next rung is the easiest humanoid.

NoteShips with an RL locomotion policy. Third-party vendors (e.g. AIFITLAB) sell kits. Year = docs '2024' edition. Licenses (GitHub license API, 2026-09-25): pupper-v3-documentation AGPL-3.0, pupperv3-monorepo and pupperv3-mjx GPL-3.0, pupper_v3_description MIT. CAD is a public Onshape/Fusion share with no stated license. Mass 3 kg per the docs tech specs page.

Sources

  1. [1]Pupper v3 docs: technical specifications (3 kg)checked 2026-09-25
  2. [2]pupperv3-monorepo (ROS 2 stack, policies; GPL-3.0)checked 2026-09-25
  3. [3]pupperv3-mjx (MJX training; GPL-3.0)checked 2026-09-25
  4. [4]Pupper v3 docs: modifying code, training a policychecked 2026-09-25
  5. [5]Pupper v3 documentationchecked 2026-09-24
  6. [6]README: Pupper v3 quick specschecked 2026-09-24