Most robot dogs are sold as finished products. You drive them, but you don’t rewrite how they walk. ROSPug is the opposite. It’s an open-source ROS robot dog built so students and researchers can study how a four-legged robot balances, steps and navigates, and then change it.
We stock ROSPug at XBOOM for ₹1,69,900 With GST. This post explains what it does, who it’s really for, and how it compares with the other quadrupeds we sell, from a ₹51,000 school robot dog to the Unitree Go2.
What ROSPug Is
ROSPug is a quadruped robot built on the Robot Operating System (ROS). It has an aluminium-alloy body, twelve high-voltage serial bus servos, an NVIDIA Jetson Nano, TOF lidar, an HD wide-angle camera, a 6-axis IMU and an OLED display. Hiwonder’s dynamic-balancing algorithm lets it switch between gaits, keep its balance on a slope, map a room and navigate it.
What sets it apart is openness. All of the Python code, including the inverse-kinematics functions that turn “step forward” into twelve joint angles, is open source and annotated for self-study.
Why a ROS Robot Dog Uses Two Controllers
ROSPug splits its work between two boards:
- NVIDIA Jetson Nano handles the slow, heavy thinking: vision, lidar SLAM, path planning and decisions.
- A dedicated microcontroller (MCU) handles the fast, timing-critical work of keeping twelve servos coordinated as the legs move.
Serious legged robots are built this way. Students see the architecture directly, rather than having it hidden inside closed firmware.
Legs, Body and Gaits
Each leg has three servos, at the hip, shoulder and elbow. That makes twelve 30 kg high-voltage serial bus servos in total, each with position feedback. The body is aluminium alloy, and the calf joints are reinforced with metal bearings. A linkage leg design speeds up the calf joint and widens each leg’s range of movement.
ROSPug walks in ripple and trot gaits and switches between them on the fly. The 6-axis IMU corrects its posture in real time, so it stays level on an incline. With the open IK code, students can change each leg’s touch time, lift time, lift height and stride, then watch what happens.
Mapping, Navigation and AI Vision
Lidar and a camera turn ROSPug from a walking robot into an autonomous one. It can:
- Build a SLAM map of a room and navigate it, with TEB path planning and fixed-point navigation
- Avoid moving obstacles and route around barriers
- Spot stairs with its camera, judge their height, and climb up or down
- Track colours, follow lines, detect faces and recognise emotions
- Read AprilTags and use MediaPipe for body and gesture recognition
- Shoot a ball, or drift in a circle using lidar and vision together
Simulate First, Then Run on the Robot
ROSPug is fully supported in Gazebo simulation within ROS, with RViz for visualising foot trajectories and the centre of gravity. For a teaching lab, this matters more than any single spec. A class of thirty can develop and debug gait or navigation code on laptops, and deploy to one or two physical robots only once it works.
You can control it without code too: through the WonderROS app (iOS/Android) with a live first-person camera view, PC software with drag-and-drop action editing, or a wireless handheld controller.
One Thing to Know: ROS Version
ROSPug runs ROS Melodic on Ubuntu 18.04. That’s fine for teaching SLAM, navigation and legged kinematics, and much of the published course material for ROS 1 is written for Melodic. But ROS Melodic is no longer maintained upstream. If your department is standardising on ROS 2 for a multi-year curriculum, talk to us before ordering so we can confirm what fits your plan.
ROSPug vs MechDog vs Unitree Go2
| MechDog Advanced Kit | ROSPug | Unitree Go2 Air | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price at XBOOM | ₹51,000 | ₹1,69,900 | ₹2,94,000 |
| Brain | ESP32 | Jetson Nano + MCU | Unitree onboard system |
| Programming | Scratch, Python, Arduino | ROS, open-source Python | App-driven |
| Mapping | No | TOF lidar SLAM | See Unitree specs |
| Best for | Schools, Grade 6–10 | University labs, research | Demos, consumer use |
Choose MechDog if you’re equipping a school lab. It takes students from Scratch to Arduino on one robot.
Choose ROSPug if you want students or researchers to study and modify legged locomotion and SLAM on hardware they’re allowed to open up.
Choose a Unitree quadruped if you need a polished robot that walks superbly out of the box, for demos, events or inspection. Our robot dog price guide compares the full Unitree range.
Buying ROSPug in India
ROSPug is ₹1,69,900 and in stock at XBOOM in Bengaluru. Institutions can ask for a quote with a GST invoice, and we’re happy to talk through how one or two robots plus Gazebo can support a full class.
See ROSPug – Quadruped Bionic Robot Dog →
Comparing options? Try the Edu Robot Finder or browse all education robots.
ROSPug: Frequently Asked Questions
Is ROSPug a cheaper alternative to a Unitree robot dog?
Not really. It’s a different tool. Unitree quadrupeds are finished products designed to walk well out of the box. ROSPug is designed to be studied and reprogrammed, with open gait, kinematics and navigation code. Choose it for teaching and research.
Which ROS version does ROSPug run?
ROS Melodic on Ubuntu 18.04. It’s well suited to teaching ROS 1, SLAM and legged kinematics. If your programme is moving to ROS 2, ask us before you order.
Can we develop code without the physical robot?
Yes. ROSPug is fully supported in Gazebo simulation, so students can write and test code on their own computers and then deploy it to the robot.
Can ROSPug climb stairs?
Yes. It uses its camera to find stairs and judge their height, adjusts its gait to climb up or down, and uses its IMU to stay balanced on inclines.
What is the ROSPug price in India?
₹1,69,900 at XBOOM, in stock. Contact us for multi-unit or institutional quotes.
