Post by @rowancheung

Hugging Face and its Pollen Robotics subsidiary have opened preorders for Microduck, a $399 desktop-sized robot built for experimenting with “physical AI.” The 25cm robot contains 15 motors, a camera, a depth sensor, two inertial measurement units, and a “beak” that can grasp small objects. Its open-source software allows developers to train behaviors through reinforcement learning in a physics simulator before transferring them to the real machine. Microduck can already walk, crouch, follow a laser, grab objects, and recover from many falls. More than 10,000 units were preordered in its first five days, roughly $4 million! Initial deliveries are targeted before Christmas of this year in North America, Europe, and the UK. Would you buy one?