Hugging Face has unveiled a small bipedal robot designed to make training physical AI more accessible. Named Microduck, the robot is shaped like a duck and costs $99; it was developed in collaboration with the French company Pollen Robotics. Despite its toy-like appearance, its primary purpose is to serve as an open platform for developers to experiment with embodied AI and reinforcement learning.
In demonstrations, the small robot is shown walking, crouching, sitting, following a laser pointer, picking up objects, and even using small roller skates; however, one of its most important features becomes apparent when something goes wrong, as Microduct was designed to fall. Because the machine is small and lightweight, developers can use reinforcement learning to allow the robot to repeatedly attempt a task, make mistakes, and adjust its behavior during training.
Posted Using INLEO
