The Jetson Nano and the specified VESC 4.12 are no longer readily sold and the Redcat chassis is gone from the maker's own store, so a build today needs substitutions the guide does not cover.
An open 1/10-scale robot car from the University of Washington's Personal Robotics Lab, built on a Redcat Blackout SC truck with a brushless motor swap, a VESC, a Jetson Nano, a YDLIDAR X4 and an Intel RealSense depth camera under a 3D-printed body. It was designed for teaching and multi-robot research, and ships with tutorials, a simulator and navigation code such as a particle filter and receding-horizon controller.
At a glance
| Parts cost | $1,100 (2022) parts list · Sum of the prices in the project's parts list, about $663 for the base car, $112 for the lidar and about $325 for the depth camera source ↗ |
|---|---|
| Difficulty | 3/5 Intermediate · No soldering is normally needed, but the motor swap, crimped power wiring, VESC firmware flashing and ROS setup on a Jetson take patience and Linux skills. |
| Build time | Not stated |
| Tools needed | 3D printer (16 STL parts for the v3 body; print time not stated), crimping tool, wire strippers, heat gun, hex keys and screwdrivers, soldering only if the VESC lacks 4 mm bullet connectors |
| Motors | Brushless motor (swapped in for the stock brushed motor) driven by a VESC, plus a 2 kg metal-arm steering servo |
| Controller | NVIDIA Jetson Nano with Wi-Fi card |
| Sensors | YDLIDAR X4 2D lidar, Intel RealSense D435(i) or D455 depth camera, optional front bumper push button |
| Published | ✓ Parts list✓ CAD/STL✓ Assembly guide✗ Wiring✓ Software✓ Video Hugo website (mushr.io, GitHub source), PDF/DOCX parts list, STL and OpenSCAD files on GitHub, YouTube build playlist |
| Activity | Last update 2026-08-14 · 189 GitHub stars · GitHub Discussions (67 threads, few replies since 2024); 63 forks of the main repo |
| Kits | No kit. The team states in a 2025 forum reply that MuSHR is not sold prebuilt and that an updated version with a newer Jetson is in progress. |
Licenses
| Design files | BSD-3-Clause (mushr_cad repo, STL/SCAD files) source ↗ |
|---|---|
| Code | BSD-3-Clause source ↗ |
| Documentation | BSD-3-Clause (mushr-website repo, which holds the site text and images) source ↗ |
Builder notes
Practical points from the project's issue tracker, forum and docs, each linked to its source.
- The parts list's Jetson Nano is retired. SparkFun, one of the parts list's listed sellers, marks it as no longer for sale, and the only Orin Nano port is a community install script posted in the forum. source ↗
- The Redcat Blackout SC chassis no longer appears in Redcat's own online catalog (checked 2026-10-02), though resellers still list it (stock unconfirmed). The team only supports the Redcat models in the parts list and says a Traxxas would need edits to the OpenSCAD body files. source ↗
- Only VESC hardware 4.12 is supported, since the steering setup depends on a servo-output firmware that newer VESCs lack, and builders report the 4.12 boards are hard to find at a fair price. source ↗
- Swapping the stock brushed motor for the brushless one is the hardest step, with a pinion screw that strips easily. Buying the Blackout SC Pro, which already has a brushless motor, skips it at a higher price. source ↗
- The documented stack is ROS 1 Noetic. A ROS 2 Jazzy port is under way on a separate branch of the main repo, where the bumper button package is disabled. source ↗
Other wheeled plans
- Donkey Car · $250–$300 · difficulty 2/5
- LeKiwi · $480 · difficulty 2/5
- OpenBot (smartphone robot) · $50 (2020) · difficulty 2/5
- XLeRobot · $660 · difficulty 3/5
- F1TENTH (RoboRacer) autonomous race car · $3,000 · difficulty 3/5
- OpenMower · $790 · difficulty 3/5
- Upkie wheeled biped · $4,600 · difficulty 4/5
- TidyBot++ · $5,200–$6,300 (2024) · difficulty 4/5
- NVIDIA JetBot · $640 (2024) · difficulty 2/5