tech
Hugging Face is selling a cute $399 open-source duck robot, Microduck
Hugging Face is taking orders for the Microduck, a $399 tiny open-source duck robot that developers can train at home out of the box.
TL;DR
- Hugging Face released Microduck, an open-source robot duck selling for $399.
- The 25-centimeter-tall duck can waddle, pick up objects, get up when it falls, and roller skate.
- Microduck is designed for developers to train using reinforcement learning and can be customized via an SDK available on GitHub.
- The robot uses a camera, lidar sensors, and IMUs for perception.
- Hugging Face acquired Pollen Robotics in April 2025 to build affordable, open-source AI hardware.
- Concerns about privacy exist regarding data collected by the robot's sensors, even with open-source models.
- The launch occurs amid reports of Hugging Face's potential acquisition by Nvidia.
- Hugging Face recently experienced a cybersecurity incident involving OpenAI's systems.