Hugging Face and its subsidiary Pollen Robotics have opened pre-orders for Microduck, a small duck-inspired bipedal robot designed for developers and robotics enthusiasts. Unlike the stationary Reachy Mini, Microduck prioritises movement and experimentation, allowing users to explore how AI-enabled robots navigate obstacles, recover from falls and interact physically with their surroundings.

The $399 robot is 25cm tall, weighs under 800g and has 15 motors, a camera, LiDAR, two motion sensors and an articulated beak that can pick up objects. It can walk, crouch, sit, recover from common falls and roller-skate; its open-source software includes development tools and reinforcement-learning support. Microduck has 32GB storage, 1GB RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and roughly one hour of continuous battery life, with initial US deliveries targeted before Christmas.