Teach and learn robotics and AI with Duckietown

State-of-the-art robotics and AI made tangible, accessible, and fun!



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An ecosystem for learning robot autonomy

Originating at MIT, Duckietown is a platform for delivering cutting-edge robotics and AI learning experiences.

We offer teaching resources to instructors, hands-on activities to learners, an accessible research platform to researchers, and a state-of-the-art ecosystem for professional training.

We believe the world needs more talent to shape the next generations of robot autonomy.

We know that talent is you.



Duckietown’s vision for education

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Duckietown worldwide

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175
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130
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Companies


63
Countries

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The Duckietown project

Duckietown started as a class at MIT in 2016 and is now a worldwide initiative to realize a new vision for AI and robotics education: state-of-the-art, hands-on, and for all.

The Duckietown technical infrastructure is maintained and developed by Duckietown, Inc., a Boston-based company. 

Duckietown’s no-profit educational and scientific activities are coordinated by the Duckietown Foundation, US.



Duckietown history

The Duckietown platform

Duckietown has many components that work together to provide joyful learning experiences. The most tangible is the hardware: Duckiebots and Duckietowns.

Duckiebots are low-cost mobile robots that are built almost entirely from off-the-shelf parts.

Duckietowns are the urban environments: roads, constructed from exercise mats and tape, and the signage that the robots use to navigate around. Duckietowns can be transformed into smart cities (“Autolabs”) by adding traffic lights and watchtowers.



Duckietown technology

A DB21 Duckietown in a Duckietown equipped with Autolab infrastructure.

Duckietown for teaching

The Duckietown platform was designed as part of a university AI/robotics curriculum.

It has been used in prestigious universities, such as MIT, ETH Zürich, Université de Montréal, and many more.

We offer a “class-in-a-box” that comprises lectures, exercises, and theory that combine with the physical robot platform to reinforce the core concepts.



Instructor guide

Duckietown for “Makademics”

Makademics (makers + academics) are people who want to learn and build on their own and also want a deep understanding of how things are working.

We want to allow everybody to learn AI and robotics even if they are not at elite institutions like MIT and ETH Zürich.

With Duckietown you can build your own robot, follow along with our lectures and interact with a global community of learners.



Learner guide

Duckietown for research

The Duckietown platform has also been used extensively for research on mobile robotics and physically embodied AI systems, with Autolabs providing accessible means for reproducible research.

You might be interested in the papers about Duckietown, and learning about the AI Driving Olympics.



Researcher guide

Teaching the Duckietown class was a wonderful experience for me and my students. The materials are great and the hands-on experience with the robot really helps reinforce the curriculum.

Matthew R. Walter, Prof.

Matthew R. Walter, Prof.Robot Intelligence through Perception Laboratory (RIPL)
Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago

Starting from MIT CSAIL, Duckietown has grown into a global initiative that is inspiring students around the world to learn about self-driving cars, as well as the science and engineering of autonomy.

Daniela Rus, Prof.

Daniela Rus, Prof.Director, Computer Science and AI Lab (CSAIL)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

The Duckietown class is the autonomous driving pie: the filling is hardcore robotics, the casing is artificial intelligence, and as a plus, you get some funny ducks on top!

Manfred Diaz

Manfred DiazPh. D. Candidate
University of Montreal

If University were like learning how to play a new instrument, where lessons are the exercises and exams the final auditions, Duckietown would be the full-blown rock concert, where you play for your fans and look to your heroes with admiration.

Gioele Zardini

Gioele ZardiniPh. D. Candidate
ETH Zurich

Duckietown was much more than just a class, it was a hands-on deep dive into hardware, software, and systems integration, and, most of all, it was a blast!

Teddy Ort, Ph. D.

Teddy Ort, Ph. D.Senior Director
Robot Perception and AI at Symbotic

Spending the summer in Duckietown at MIT made me discover a completely new world: I understood that education can be a game and learning can be fun!

Valeria Cagnina

Valeria CagninaYoung Enterpreneur

Great platform and solid e-learning experience!

Benjamin Sawicki

Benjamin SawickiCoordinator Knowledge & Technology Transfer
NCCR Automation

Highly recommended. I joined the first cohort of “Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown” and loved it.

Manuel Heredia Ortiz

Manuel Heredia OrtizVice President, PhD, Executive MBA
Airbus

Very excited to be a part of the upcoming edition of “Self-Driving Cars with Duckietown”. In the last edition, my students and I enjoyed learning of many new topics with hands-on experience. All the student team had a very good experience. Amazing support by Duckietown!

Kishanprasad Gunale

Kishanprasad GunaleAssitant Professor
MIT College of Engineering, Pune

Thanks to the extraordinary learning and research platform Duckietown from ETHZurich, TTI Chicago, University of Montreal and the helpful around-the-hour support from the Duckietown core team #BFH was able to successfully introduce its BSc automotive engineering students in the exciting world of autonomous driving!

Peter Affolter, Prof.

Peter Affolter, Prof.Head of Department Automotive Engineering
Berner Fachhochschule BFH

I believe that there’s a lot of interesting research directions that come from a standardized, small scale, accessible autonomous driving platform like Duckietown.

Liam Paull, Prof.

Liam Paull, Prof.Department of Computer Science and Operations Research
Université de Montréal

All the different concepts ranging from control to localization to computer vision can be applied in Duckietown. My students like it and they learn a lot about robotics.

Francesco Maurelli, Prof.

Francesco Maurelli, Prof.Jacobs University of Bremen

In my class we go over the basics of robotics, starting with multi-agent processing or multi-process systems, like most robots are these days, and the Duckiebots are perfect for that

Paul Robinette, Prof.

Paul Robinette, Prof.Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Massachusetts Lowell

I think Duckietown is a very good education platform for teachers. We make use of the very good materials provided by Duckietown and I’m very satisfied with its implementation.

Lei Yang, Prof.

Lei Yang, Prof.Department of Computer Science and Engineering
University of Nevada, Reno

In engineering, true learning comes from practical implementation, and Duckietown offers that opportunity effectively.

Shima Akbari

Shima AkbariPh. D. Candidate
University of Rome “La Sapienza”



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do research



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The Duckietown project

Duckietown started as a class at MIT in 2016. You can watch the “duckumentary” created about the first class.

Duckietown is now a worldwide initiative to realize a new vision for AI/robotics education.

Since 2018 the project is coordinated by the non-profit Duckietown Foundation.

Read more: The Duckietown Foundation; our mission; our story; how you can help.

The Duckietown platform

The platform has two parts: Duckiebots and Duckietowns. 

Duckiebots are low-cost mobile robots that are built almost entirely from off-the-shelf parts. The only onboard sensor is the forward-facing camera. 

Duckietowns are the roads, which are constructed from exercise mats and tape, and the signage which the robots use to navigate around. 

Read more about the platform…

Duckietown for education

The Duckietown platform designed as part of an a university AI/robotics curriculum. 

It has been used in prestigious universities, such as MIT, ETH Zürich, and Université de Montréal.

We are developing a “class-in-a-box” that comprises lectures, exercises, and theory, that combine with the physical robot platform to reinforce the core concepts. 

If you are an instructor interested in using Duckietown, read here to get started.

Duckietown for research

The Duckietown platform has also been used extensively for research on mobile robotics and physically embodied AI systems. 

If you are a researcher, read more about getting started about using the platform for research. See also: papers using Duckietown, the researchers using Duckietown.

Duckietown for “Makademics”

Makademics (makers + academics) are people who want to learn and build on their own and also want a very deep understanding of how things are working.

 
We want to allow everybody to learn AI/robotics even if they are not at elite institutions like MIT and ETH Zürich.
 

With Duckietown you can easily build your own robot, and follow along our lectures and interact with a global community of learners.