--- title: Hugging Face is selling a $399 robot duck with... description: Hugging Face's hardware subsidiary Pollen Robotics has launched Microduck, a $399 bipedal robot duck with 15 motors, a Rockchip RK3566 chip, LiDAR and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/hugging-face-is-selling-a-399-robot-duck-with-open-source-software-xdquuj5mt twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Hugging Face is selling a $399 robot duck with open-source software | daily.dev og:description: Hugging Face's hardware subsidiary Pollen Robotics has launched Microduck, a $399 bipedal robot duck with 15 motors, a Rockchip RK3566 chip, LiDAR and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/hugging-face-is-selling-a-399-robot-duck-with-open-source-software-xdquuj5mt og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/XDQUUJ5Mt.png og:image:alt: Hugging Face is selling a $399 robot duck with open-source software og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Hugging Face is selling a $399 robot duck with open-source software **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Hugging Face's hardware subsidiary Pollen Robotics has launched Microduck, a $399 bipedal robot duck with 15 motors, a Rockchip RK3566 chip, LiDAR and camera-based sensing, and an open-source software stack (SDK, RL and sim-to-real tools already on GitHub). The mechanical and electronic designs remain closed, despite the open-source framing. It can lift roughly 100 grams, has no built-in autonomy or purpose beyond what the community builds, and ships before Christmas 2026. The launch comes amid reports that Nvidia is negotiating a $12.9-13bn acquisition of Hugging Face, which neither company has confirmed. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What hardware does the Hugging Face Microduck robot run on? Microduck runs on a Rockchip RK3566 chip with an AI accelerator, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. It uses a front camera, an 8x8 time-of-flight LiDAR matrix for distance, two inertial measurement units (one in the body, one in the head), and a 50Hz policy loop connecting the onboard model to its sensors. It runs on a removable NP-F550 camera battery for about an hour. _Developers experimenting with on-device robotics AI can follow hardware specs like these on daily.dev._ ### Is the Hugging Face Microduck robot fully open source? No, only the software is open source. Pollen Robotics released the SDK, robot software, and reinforcement learning and sim-to-real tools on GitHub, but the mechanical and electronic design files are closed, and Pollen explicitly asks reporters not to call it open-source hardware, unlike its earlier Reachy Mini robot which used the same open-software, closed-hardware model. _Anyone evaluating open versus closed robotics platforms can track these distinctions on daily.dev._ ### How much weight can the Hugging Face Microduck robot lift? Microduck can lift roughly 100 grams, about the weight of a bar of soap, according to Pollen Robotics' Santiago Pavon. Its beak articulates and its camera can locate objects, but grasping capability stays limited given the robot's small size, and TechCrunch issued a correction after initially misstating the beak's carrying capacity. _Developers weighing hobby robotics platforms can compare specs like this on daily.dev._ --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#nvidia](https://daily.dev/tags/nvidia), [#robotics](https://daily.dev/tags/robotics), [#reinforcement-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/reinforcement-learning) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/hugging-face-is-selling-a-399-robot-duck-with-open-source-software-xdquuj5mt) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Hugging Face is selling a $399 robot duck with open-source software","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/hugging-face-is-selling-a-399-robot-duck-with-open-source-software-xdquuj5mt","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/hugging-face-is-selling-a-399-robot-duck-with-open-source-software-xdquuj5mt"},"datePublished":"2026-08-31T14:27:19.387Z","dateModified":"2026-08-31T14:28:19.145Z","description":"Hugging Face's hardware subsidiary Pollen Robotics has launched Microduck, a $399 bipedal robot duck with 15 motors, a Rockchip RK3566 chip, LiDAR and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d7e3bf10581e0a384e0d6967f90d9c2a?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d7e3bf10581e0a384e0d6967f90d9c2a?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/hugging-face-is-selling-a-399-robot-duck-with-open-source-software-xdquuj5mt","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,nvidia,robotics,reinforcement-learning","timeRequired":"PT7M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Hugging Face is selling a $399 robot duck with open-source software"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/hugging-face-is-selling-a-399-robot-duck-with-open-source-software-xdquuj5mt#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What hardware does the Hugging Face Microduck robot run on?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Microduck runs on a Rockchip RK3566 chip with an AI accelerator, 1GB of RAM and 32GB of onboard storage. 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