This cute little robot duck isn’t actually a toy. It’s actually a platform for budding roboticists to train on and develop skills. But heck, this might be the most fun design for a hackable machine we’ve seen yet.
The Microduck comes from Pollen Robotics, an acquired subsidiary of Hugging Face which is best known for distributing open source AI models and datasets.
This is the second product from the Bordeaux, France-based team. Weighing about 800 g (28 oz), it stands just under 10 inches (25 cm) tall, waddles on its two feet, and iis able to pick up small objects using its grasping beak.
Meet Microduck, the $399 Tiny Robot You Can Teach New Tricks
Using an included game controller, you can command it to move around and perform seven different moves right out of the box. There’s a camera on the front, as well as a LiDAR sensor and two Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs) to help report its movement. It has 15 motors to enable motion, and there’s also a mic and speaker to interact with the bot via voice.
The idea is for people to train Microduck using a desktop-based simulation tool, and beam those behaviors to the robot and watch it in action in the real world.
Hugging Face
The Microduck’s movement and capabilities can be fine-tuned using an open source software development kit (SDK) and reinforcement learning training stack.
The Microduck can walk, sit, crouch, pick up small objects, and recover from falls on its own. You can even swap out its feet for roller-skate-style wheels, and have it interact with NFC-tagged objects and other Microducks.
We made a new robot.
That’s pretty darn cool for people getting to grips with the latest generation of robotics programming tools and training systems. It’s also nice to see a fun and approachable machine made for this purpose.
Some of these trainable robots coming from China cost thousands of dollars; a San Francisco-based startup just released one that’s said to be capable of household chores and beyond for $1,700. Those are all cool, but they may be overkill for engineers who are early in their robotics training journeys.
Hugging Face
It’s also different from Pollen’s previous effort, Reachy Mini – a stationary desktop robot that’s more about responding to voice commands and hand gestures. Microduck, on the other hand, lets you experiment with movement and interactions with the physical world.
In addition to the open source software you can muck around with, Pollen is keen on building a community of robot hackers around Microduck. That could open up opportunities for people to learn from each other and share resources.
Hugging Face
The bot is available in four adorable colorways, and costs US$399 to pre-order starting today. Pollen hopes to ship before Christmas in North America and Europe.
Check out the Microduck on Pollen Robotics’ site.
Source: Pollen Robotics
