# Stanford Pupper: A Low-Cost Agile Quadruped Robot for Benchmarking and Education

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.00736 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.00736/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 2 Oct 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [BricksRL: A Platform for Democratizing Robotics and Reinforcement Learning Research and Education with LEGO](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.17490/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present Stanford Pupper, an easily-replicated open source quadruped robot designed specifically as a benchmark platform for legged robotics research. The robot features torque-controllable brushless motors with high specific power that enable testing of impedance and torque-based machine learning and optimization control approaches. Pupper can be built from the ground up in under 8 hours for a total cost under 2000, with all components either easily purchased or 3D printed. To rigorously compare control approaches, we introduce two benchmarks, Sprint and Scramble with a leader board maintained by Stanford Student Robotics. These benchmarks test high-speed dynamic locomotion capability, and robustness to unstructured terrain. We provide a reference controller with dynamic, omnidirectional gaits that serves as a baseline for comparison. Reproducibility is demonstrated across multiple institutions with robots made independently. All material is available at https://stanfordstudentrobotics.org/quadruped-benchmark.