MOSS · litter-picking rover · open source · V0.3 on the bench, V0.4 in CAD
Cleaner streets, one maker at a time.
A small, mostly 3D-printed rover with a bin and an arm derived from the SO-101, made to pick up litter where you live. Print it, build it, improve it, run it. Code, design files and data are open.
The build, day by day
Concept video. Target: about 500 to 700 USD in parts plus a Jetson. The repo starts.
16 SEPFirst prints on two printers: the bin in PLA, a flexible track in TPU.
18 SEPThe chassis comes off the printer in black PETG. First fit check on the bench.
19 SEPThe whole print set is on the bench: 113 parts, plus shafts, bearings and screws.
20 SEPBoth motors and encoders run for the first time from the ESP32-S3. By the evening the electronics are in the chassis and the Jetson boots on battery.
22 SEPFirst drive. The single-sided track adjustment leaves the tension uneven: a second tensioner per track goes into V0.4.
Every step is written down when it is real, good or bad: build log, what did not fit.
What is inside
| BRAIN | Jetson Orin Nano Super 8 GB, in its original base, inside the printed cartridge |
| EYES | Intel RealSense D455 depth camera, IMU included |
| MOTOR CONTROL | ESP32-S3 over serial, two Cytron MD10C R3 drivers, geared motors with quadrature encoders |
| ARM | SO-101-derived arm, five ST3215 servos, parallel gripper derived from the NormaCore NC90 with a CF35-12 servo |
| POWER | 3S pack, inline fuse, INA219 for battery voltage |
| PRINTED | 113 parts: chassis, bin and cover, rails, wheels and rollers, tensioners, arm, gripper, in PETG, PLA and TPU 95A |
| SOFTWARE | dimOS on the Jetson, commissioning firmware on the ESP32-S3, cold-tested teleop and kinematics |
What does it cost
| AS BUILT | Jetson Orin Nano Super, RealSense D455, 2 TB SSD | about $1,680 |
| NEXT | Raspberry Pi 5, Mighty Camera | $820 |
| NEXT | Raspberry Pi 5, ST 3D time-of-flight | $821 |
Replacement-cost estimates for every part, not receipts. The Pi builds keep the same chassis, arm and drivetrain and are not tested yet. Every line and source: itemized budget.
Try the demo
Jev, TypeSafe AI's decision model, chooses every step of a pickup, approach, align, grasp, lift, carry, release, on physics recorded once in MuJoCo and replayed in your browser. Three missions with real Jev decisions, plus the earlier target-choice scenarios.
Build one, or come and watch
The design files are not out yet. The first MOSS rolls; the assembly feedback goes into V0.4 before the parts and their BOM are released. Until then, the door is the Discord: ask anything, tell us what we are doing wrong, it helps the next builder too. Data recorded by builders is meant to be pooled and open, so the shared model gets better with every rover.