Pollen Robotics designed the robot around movement rather than conversation. Microduck can walk, crouch, sit, recover after common falls and even roller skate, giving developers a small platform for testing how AI-powered machines respond to movement challenges and physical environments.
That approach differs from Reachy Mini, the desktop robot Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics launched after Hugging Face acquired the French robotics company in April 2025. Reachy Mini was built primarily for human-robot interaction, while Microduck is intended to explore mobility and embodied behavior.
Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue described Microduck as an “open-source robot you can teach new tricks with reinforcement learning.” The robot’s small size is part of the design strategy. Because Microduck is lightweight and capable of standing back up after a fall, developers can repeatedly test new behaviors without the same safety or hardware concerns that come with much larger robots.
Its software stack is open source. Pollen Robotics has released the SDK, simulation tools and reinforcement learning stack on GitHub, allowing developers to train behaviors in simulation, deploy them to the robot and then continue fine-tuning or retraining them.
Microduck also ships with pre-trained behaviors. Users can control it with a gamepad or have it follow a laser dot without first programming those capabilities themselves. Developers can go further by modifying its movement and simulation systems through the available software.
The robot communicates through sounds rather than speech. Hugging Face said each Microduck receives a permanent “audio identity” during setup, reinforcing the company’s effort to make the device feel more like a character than a conventional assistant.
The duck-inspired design was chosen to match the robot’s proportions, beak and waddling movement. Hugging Face is offering four versions — Cream, Graphite, Lavender and Sky — and said groups of differently colored robots are intended to feel more like distinct characters than identical machines.
Microduck includes 32GB of storage and 1GB of onboard RAM, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Its 2,600mAh battery is rated for about one hour of continuous use.
The robot’s sensing hardware also creates privacy considerations. Its camera and microphones can be accessed by software running on the device, and while an open-source stack gives developers more visibility into how the system operates, applications installed on top of it can still potentially send captured data to external services.
The launch extends Hugging Face’s push into physical AI after its acquisition of Pollen Robotics. The company now has multiple small, relatively inexpensive robots aimed at developers who want to experiment with open-source AI systems outside a purely software environment.
“Welcome to the era of open-source affordable robots to democratize physical AI and world models!” Delangue said.
This analysis is based on reporting from Engadget.
Image courtesy of Hugging Face/Pollen Robotics.
This article was generated with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy and quality.
