GroundPick — picking things up

Mjlab-GroundPick-Flat-MicroDuck
Mjlab-GroundPick-Rough-MicroDuck

Crouch, touch the floor with the beak tip, return to standing. A / cross on the pad.

Where the difficulty is

The motion requires taking the centre of mass very low and leaning far enough forward for the beak to reach the ground, without losing balance.

For a 25 cm biped this compresses the support polygon to its limit — the policy has to control the centre of mass precisely at the moment of contact, rather than carrying itself through on momentum.

It is the basis of “grab”

Microduck has an articulated beak. GroundPick trains the motion that brings the beak to the floor; opening and closing it is separate (the triggers).

So picking something up is GroundPick putting the beak in place, plus a trigger closing it.