Hugging Face’s Pollen Robotics has opened preorders for the Microduck, a small, one-eyed bipedal AI robot designed to move, interact with its surroundings and perform simple tasks. The open-source robot matters because owners can customise and retrain its software, extending its abilities beyond its default demonstrations.

Standing just under 10 inches tall, the Microduck costs $399 and is offered in cream, graphite, lavender and sky blue, with shipping planned before Christmas 2026. It can pick up small objects, follow a laser pointer, be controlled by a game controller, rollerskate and make a unique set of sounds assigned when it first starts up; its hardware includes a Rockchip RK3566 processor, camera, motion sensors, LiDAR and articulated limbs.