Hugging Face Debuts $399 Open-Source Microduck Robot

Hugging Face, in partnership with its subsidiary Pollen Robotics, has introduced Microduck, a 25-centimeter-tall duck-like robot priced at $399. Slated to ship before Christmas, the machine can waddle, crouch, recover from falls, pick up objects with its beak, and even roller skate. To navigate and perceive its surroundings, the hardware is equipped with a camera, lidar sensors, and two inertial measurement units.

For robotics practitioners, the Microduck represents an accessible entry point into physical AI. Developers can train the robot's behaviors in a simulated environment before deploying them directly to the physical unit. The entire software development kit, simulation tools, and reinforcement learning training stack are openly hosted on GitHub, allowing users to fine-tune, retrain, and redeploy models easily.

This release builds on Hugging Face's hardware expansion following its April 2025 acquisition of French startup Pollen Robotics. The companies previously launched the Reachy Mini, a desktop robot powered by a Raspberry Pi that sells for $499, alongside a $399 Reachy Mini Lite that relies on an external Mac or PC. The new duck-like robot further advances their goal of making physical AI more accessible through open-source designs.

Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue has advocated for open-source robotics as a more auditable and private alternative to proprietary, closed-source systems. However, experts note that third-party applications built on top of the open models could still access the robot's camera and microphone data. The launch arrives amid reports that Nvidia is planning to acquire Hugging Face in a deal valued at $13 billion, cementing a long-standing infrastructure partnership between the two firms.