{"id":2115649,"date":"2026-08-27T14:56:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T11:56:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2115649"},"modified":"2026-08-27T14:56:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T11:56:52","slug":"hugging-face-is-selling-a-cute-399-open-source-duck-robot-microduck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2115649","title":{"rendered":"Hugging Face is selling a cute $399 open source duck robot, Microduck"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/microduck-morning.jpg?resize=1200,750″]<\/p>\n

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Hugging Face unveiled the Microduck on Thursday, a cute little duck-like robot that sells for $399 \u2014 and ships before Christmas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Clem Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, said the Microduck is an \u201copen-source robot you can teach new tricks with reinforcement learning.\u201d The 25-centimeter-tall duck can waddle, pick things up with its beak (up to 800 grams), get back up when it falls, crouch, and even roller skate.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWelcome to the era of open-source affordable robots to democratize physical AI and world models!\u201d Delangue said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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raw footage pic.twitter.com\/HUTKEb9bXT<\/p>\n

\u2014 clem \ud83e\udd17 (@ClementDelangue) August 27, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Hugging Face is best known as a platform and community where developers go for open model weights. However, the company acquired French startup Pollen Robotics in April 2025 to build affordable, open source AI hardware. A couple of months later, the two launched Reachy Mini, a small desktop robot. Today, they sell the $499 Reachy Mini, which is powered by a Raspberry Pi computer, and the $399 Reachy Mini Lite, powered by a Mac or PC.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The new Microduck perceives the world with a camera, lidar sensors, and two IMUs (inertial measurement units that measure and report an object\u2019s movement).\u00a0<\/p>\n

Pollen Robotics noted that the Microduck\u2019s behaviors can be trained in simulation and directly deployed on the robot. Developers can then fine-tune the bot, retrain it, and redeploy it. The SDK (software development kit), simulation, and full RL training stack are available on GitHub.<\/p>\n

For those who might find it concerning to have a robot with a camera in their bedrooms and private spaces, Delangue previously told TechCrunch that bots run by open source models are much better from a privacy standpoint than \u201ca black box system\u201d controlled by a few organizations, \u201cespecially if these organizations\u2019 CEO is not the most stable person in the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

While open source gives developers auditability and control, it doesn\u2019t provide a guarantee that sensitive data remains private after consumers start installing software applications on top of the model. Those apps can access the bot\u2019s cameras and microphones and, depending on how they\u2019re built, send that data to external services.<\/p>\n

The launch of the Microduck comes as Hugging Face is reportedly set to be acquired by Nvidia at a $13 billion valuation. Nvidia and Hugging Face have been partners for years, with Nvidia providing the startup\u2019s infrastructure since at least 2023. Both companies have also been publicly aligned in promoting open source AI.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hugging Face was recently in the headlines over a cybersecurity incident that occurred after OpenAI\u2019s systems breached its sandbox during safety testing and hacked into the platform\u2019s servers.<\/p>\n

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TechCrunch has reached out to Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics for more information. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2026\/08\/27\/hugging-face-is-selling-a-cute-399-open-source-duck-robot-microduck\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/microduck-morning.jpg?resize=1200,750″] Hugging Face unveiled the Microduck on Thursday, a cute little duck-like robot that sells for $399 \u2014 and ships before Christmas.\u00a0 Clem Delangue, CEO of Hugging Face, said the Microduck is an \u201copen-source robot you can teach new tricks with reinforcement learning.\u201d The 25-centimeter-tall duck can waddle, pick things up with its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,62],"class_list":["post-2115649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-techcrunch-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2115649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2115649\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2115649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2115649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2115649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}