Together with robotics company Pollen Robotics, Hugging Face is selling a cute, duck-shaped robot: the “Microduck” is open source, costs $399 and targets developers who want to experiment with “physical AI.”
Small but packed
The bipedal robot is about 25 centimeters tall and weighs under 800 grams. Inside it are 15 motors, a camera, a small depth sensor and two motion sensors (IMUs). With those, Microduck can walk, crouch, grasp objects and recover from falls – and learn entirely new behaviors through simulation.
Open to your own experiments
Via an open-source SDK, you can program new behaviors, train reinforcement-learning policies in simulation and then transfer them to the real robot through “sim-to-real.” The target audience is researchers, developers and students looking for an affordable entry into robotics and machine learning – beyond expensive industrial humanoids.
Price and availability
Microduck is available to pre-order from $399 (plus taxes and shipping) in Cream, Graphite, Lavender and Sky. First deliveries are targeted for before Christmas 2026 in North America, Europe and the UK.
Sources: TechCrunch, Engadget.
