Stanford students build tiny AI-powered robot dog from basic kit

Stanford University’s Computer Science 123 course offers undergraduates a hands-on introduction to robotics and AI by having them build and program a low-cost quadruped robot called “Pupper.” Over a 10-week elective, student teams receive a basic robot kit and learn to engineer the platform’s movement, sensing, and intelligence from the ground up. By the course’s end, groups demonstrated Puppers capable of navigating mazes, acting as tour guides, or simulating firefighting with a toy water cannon, showcasing practical applications of their AI and hardware skills. The course originated from a student robotics club project called “Doggo,” designed to prove that advanced legged robots need not be prohibitively expensive. Led by instructors including former Tesla executive Stuart Bowers, Stanford professor Karen Liu, and Google DeepMind researcher Jie Tan, the curriculum guides students from basic motor control and sensor calibration to training neural networks for gait refinement, object tracking, and voice command response. Students even create custom hardware extensions, bridging