Hugging Face is selling a $399 open-source duck robot called Microduck, and it will ship before Christmas.
Clem Delangue, the company’s chief executive, described the device as an open-source robot you can teach new tricks with reinforcement learning. Standing 25 centimetres tall, the duck waddles, picks up objects weighing up to 800 grams with its beak, rights itself after falling, crouches, and can even roller skate.
“Welcome to the era of open-source affordable robots to democratize physical AI and world models!” Delangue said.
Hugging Face is primarily known as a platform where developers access open model weights. However, the firm acquired French startup Pollen Robotics in April 2025 to build affordable, open-source AI hardware. A couple of months later, the pair launched Reachy Mini, a small desktop robot. Today, they sell the $499 Reachy Mini, which runs on a Raspberry Pi computer, and the $399 Reachy Mini Lite, powered by a Mac or PC.
Hardware and sensors
The Microduck sees its surroundings using a camera, lidar sensors, and two inertial measurement units. These units measure and report an object’s movement.
Pollen Robotics noted that the Microduck’s behaviours can be trained in simulation and directly deployed on the robot. Developers can then fine-tune the bot, re-train it, and re-deploy it. The software development kit, simulation tools, and full reinforcement learning training stack are available on GitHub.
Privacy concerns
For those who might find it concerning to have a robot with a camera in their bedrooms and private spaces, Delangue previously told TechCrunch that bots run by open-source models are much better from a privacy standpoint than “a black box system” controlled by a few organizations. He added this is especially true if these organizations’ CEO is not the most stable person in the world.
While open source gives developers auditability and control, it does not provide a guarantee that sensitive data remains private after consumers start installing software applications on top of the model. Those apps can access the bot’s cameras and microphones and, depending on how they are built, send that data to external services.
Corporate context
The launch comes as Hugging Face is reportedly set to be acquired by Nvidia at a $13 billion valuation. Nvidia and Hugging Face have been partners for years, with Nvidia providing the startup’s infrastructure since at least 2023. Both companies have also been publicly aligned in promoting open-source AI.
Hugging Face was recently in the headlines over a cybersecurity incident that occurred after OpenAI‘s systems breached its sandbox during safety testing and hacked into the platform’s servers.
TechCrunch has reached out to Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics for more information.
What it means
The Microduck is a physical AI experiment rather than a consumer toy. It allows developers to test reinforcement learning on hardware that can interact with the real world, rather than just simulating movement on a screen. The $399 price point targets hobbyists and researchers who want to build their own control systems without relying on proprietary cloud APIs.
