Hugging Face Launches $399 Open-Source Rollerskating 'Microduck' for Embodied AI Research
Published on August 28, 2026 · Source: TechCrunch
Hugging Face has expanded into open hardware with Microduck, a $399 duck-shaped mobile robot on wheels built for hands-on embodied AI experimentation.
Open-source AI platform Hugging Face has officially entered physical hardware manufacturing with the announcement of "Microduck," a $399 open-source mobile robot designed to democratize embodied artificial intelligence research.
The small, duck-inspired robot features dual motorized wheels, precision servo actuators, an onboard HD camera module, and native integration with Hugging Face's LeRobot machine learning library. Researchers can train policy models in simulation environments and transfer learned weights directly to physical Microduck units.
By providing low-cost, modular hardware hardware alongside open software standards, Hugging Face aims to spark community-driven innovation in robotics similar to its transformer ecosystem.