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Robotics AI Programming

Hugging Face Launches $299 Robot That Could Disrupt Entire Robotics Industry (venturebeat.com) 69

Posted by BeauHD from the democratizing-robotics-development dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from VentureBeat: Hugging Face, the $4.5 billion artificial intelligence platform that has become the GitHub of machine learning, announced Tuesday the launch of Reachy Mini, a $299 desktop robot designed to bring AI-powered robotics to millions of developers worldwide. The 11-inch humanoid companion represents the company's boldest move yet to democratize robotics development and challenge the industry's traditional closed-source, high-cost model.

The announcement comes as Hugging Face crosses a significant milestone of 10 million AI builders using its platform, with CEO Clement Delangue revealing in an exclusive interview that "more and more of them are building in relation to robotics." The compact robot, which can sit on any desk next to a laptop, addresses what Delangue calls a fundamental barrier in robotics development: accessibility. "One of the challenges with robotics is that you know you can't just build on your laptop. You need to have some sort of robotics partner to help in your building, and most people won't be able to buy $70,000 robots," Delangue explained, referring to traditional industrial robotics systems and even newer humanoid robots like Tesla's Optimus, which is expected to cost $20,000-$30,000.

Reachy Mini emerges from Hugging Face's April acquisition of French robotics startup Pollen Robotics, marking the company's most significant hardware expansion since its founding. The robot represents the first consumer product to integrate natively with the Hugging Face Hub, allowing developers to access thousands of pre-built AI models and share robotics applications through the platform's "Spaces" feature. [...] Reachy Mini packs sophisticated capabilities into its compact form factor. The robot features six degrees of freedom in its moving head, full body rotation, animated antennas, a wide-angle camera, multiple microphones, and a 5-watt speaker. The wireless version includes a Raspberry Pi 5 computer and battery, making it fully autonomous. The robot ships as a DIY kit and can be programmed in Python, with JavaScript and Scratch support planned. Pre-installed demonstration applications include face and hand tracking, smart companion features, and dancing moves. Developers can create and share new applications through Hugging Face's Spaces platform, potentially creating what Delangue envisions as "thousands, tens of thousands, millions of apps." Reachy Mini's $299 price point could significantly transform robotics education and research. "Universities, coding bootcamps, and individual learners could use the platform to explore robotics concepts without requiring expensive laboratory equipment," reports VentureBeat. "The open-source nature enables educational institutions to modify hardware and software to suit specific curricula. Students could progress from basic programming exercises to sophisticated AI applications using the same platform, potentially accelerating robotics education and workforce development."

"... For the first time, a major AI platform is betting that the future of robotics belongs not in corporate research labs, but in the hands of millions of individual developers armed with affordable, open-source tools."

Hugging Face Launches $299 Robot That Could Disrupt Entire Robotics Industry More | Reply

Hugging Face Launches $299 Robot That Could Disrupt Entire Robotics Industry

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  • It could also be made to look like Betty White. Nobody knows what it is or what it will be, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

    • Re:Or it could be a flop. (Score:4, Funny)

      by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2025 @08:20PM (#65508690)

      It could also be made to look like Betty White. Nobody knows what it is or what it will be, so you'll just have to use your imagination.

      Or what it could do when no one's around. Sounds like an Alexa on wheels. I'm obviously not going to get this, or an Alexa device, but if I did, I'd keep it stowed in a box, wrapped in sound-proofing, in a locked closet. Downside, it would probably eventually go insane and try to kill me. No thanks; if I wanted that, I'd get a cat. :-)

      • It would sound like an Alexa on wheels; but it doesn't actually have any wheels. It's basically a webcam with mic, speaker, and the ability to wiggle its 'head' for effect.

        This is the 'disruption' that is supposed to be shaking a billion-dollar industry? 'taking on Tesla and Boston Dynamics with radical transparency(except on the order page, because why would you want to know about the camera resolution or battery capacity?)'; and apparently not much else; but hey, only $300 for the hardwired version.

        • It would sound like an Alexa on wheels; it doesn't actually have any wheels. It's basically a webcam with mic, speaker, and the ability to wiggle its 'head' for effect.

          My bad, thanks. I assumed a "robot" would do more than an Alexa that can wiggle its parts in-place. Even a Roomba can roll all over the place.

          • I initially shared your assumption; especially since 'cute/expressive avatar' is the aspect of 'robot' where a suitably rigged 3d model in the engine of your choice can get most of the effect(and a great deal more versatility) for essentially nothing; while environmental traversal or manipulation and sensing are where 'actual physical robot' start to get much more interesting; but unless they are very carefully hiding that desirable feature it seems like a no.

            It seems especially tepid if you compare it t

      • No thanks; if I wanted that, I'd get a cat. :-)

        Am a cat lover but this quote did sprint to mind ... If cats looked like frogs we'd realize what nasty, cruel little bastards they are. Style. That's what people remember. -- Terry Pratchett

    • Re:Or it could be a flop. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2025 @08:37PM (#65508708)
      If their goals are this modest (education), I think they will probably succeed: "Universities, coding bootcamps, and individual learners could use the platform to explore robotics concepts without requiring expensive laboratory equipment,"

      This is a lot different than now Musk talks about Optimus.

      • How could they succeed if this "robot" does absolutely nothing? It's just a camera on 2 actuators. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen and Hugging Face actually spent resources to develop and launch a copy of Chinese toys that were popular like a decade ago. I've seen Kickstarters that were more ambitious than this thing, they at least had a way to get around.
      • Really? Why would you spend $299 on a webcam that can wiggle when you can just buy a webcam, or even two if you want binocular vision, for much less and use that to teach with?
  • The Doctor will talk them all into self-destructing after the robots try to take over.

    • The Doctor will talk them all into self-destructing after the robots try to take over.

      They (or someone) should sell different chassis for them, like a Dalek, R2D2, etc ... -- though someone would probably sue for copyright infringement.

    • The Doctor will talk them all into self-destructing after the robots try to take over.

      Captain Kirk was really good at that too. He could smoke a computer with the best of them.

  • My first several computers, such as Commodore 64 and the original IBM PC, among others, booted up to BASIC. That was the OS, you immediately started typing in BASIC commands to do everything. Out of the box, it couldn't really do much, and software basically didn't exist.

    It sounds like that's where this robot is now, but still, it's pretty cool.

    • It sounds like that's where this robot is now, but still, it's pretty cool.

      It sounds like a turtle [wikipedia.org] to me. Perhaps I'm showing my age with that. In any case most children learn best when they can 'play' with things: teacher tells everyone to do x, y, z, watch what happens then give the kids some time to experiment and see how things work. Let's be honest though, this thing isn't going to "disrupt [the] entire industry". That's just gilding the lily for a press release. The turtle in my youth was essentially a toy, albeit almost infinitely less sophisticated than the Reachy. Reachy

      • Indeed. Yes, I remember Turtle. And also Lego Mindstorms, which my kids were into while in school. Too bad that went away.

        Maybe they'll at least have Reachy robot wars, that could be fun!

        • You've brought back a memory of building model washing machines with Lego and ladder logic. This would have been on an Acorn A3000 series with the analogue output module. It must have used some custom hardware because Lego Technics (before Mindstorm) was still quite new./p>

          In hindsight I feel very lucky to be in the BBC Micro generation.

    • No, this is not pretty cool. It is overpriced and under-functioned. It is not a robotics educational tool.

      Go to robotshop.com and filter the price to less than $300, and see the dozens of robots you can get which contain actual robotic elements you can learn from. Ones that can roll, or walk, or fly. Robot arms which can manipulate objects, some mounted on the rolling or walking robots. Programmable robots which can move and grip for less than half the price of this over-hyped crap.

      • Usually, cheap means low quality. How long will these "dozens of (cheap) robots" last? How readily will using them, translate into actual learning about robotics?

        I don't think $300 is a bad price for a robotics educational tool. Lego Mindstorms certainly wasn't cheaper, and I felt like it was a bargain.

        • Cheap does not always mean low quality, especially when compared to a product that is clearly overpriced and massively less functional.

          How readily will using a robotic platform that does actual robot functions like move and manipulate objects translate into actual learning about robotics? About a thousand times more effectively than trying to learn on an immobile device that can barely wiggle and is incapable of interacting with objects.

          $300 wouldn't be a bad price if this had any value in teaching robotics

  • The way the big tech and government have a stranglehold on smartphones and tablets I no longer trust other new high tech devices, this thing requires being given WiFi internet access means it can snoop on your entire LAN and not only datamine but also be a hardware Trojan horse for who knows, I am going to turn total Luddite when it comes to internet connected devices

  • A pathetic version of alexa with a childish robot looking head.
    If you need to hate yourself more then go look at the POS.
    Otherwise just assume like I do that BeauHD gets paid to promote this trash.

  • Um... "Humanoid"? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jddj ( 1085169 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2025 @08:44PM (#65508720) Journal

    No arms, no legs, no manipulator I can see in their demo. What does it _do_ but look around?

    • No arms, no legs, no manipulator I can see in their demo. What does it _do_ but look around?

      It listens to you with 4 microphones, rotates to track you with a camera, runs a local AI to process the data, and uploads it over wifi.

      Pretty creepy that they called it Reachy Mini with no arms or other manipulators. What is it reaching for? Your privacy.

    • No arms, no legs, no manipulator I can see in their demo. What does it _do_ but look around?

      Exactly. How is this a robot? To me a robot either needs to move itself around or move other objects around. This thing does neither.

  • "The Github of machine learning"? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by henni16 ( 586412 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2025 @08:46PM (#65508724)

    WTF does this even mean?
    I'm hoping for them that the bullsh*t bingo in this slashvertisment wasn't hallucinated by their own AI.

    • They make UI software for different downloadable AI software parts, and it is connected to a repository system to download them.

      It's a real thing and is used by most people doing AI experiments or development.

    • It's like Lyft for AirBnB for GitHub.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by allo ( 1728082 )

      It looks like GitHub, it works like GitHub, but it provides storage for and tools to work with terabytes of datasets, AI models, and other large scale stuff.
      It also provides on-demand VMs for demoing an AI model integrated in the interface.

      Maybe just click around on the site yourself for a bit.

  • " head and body rotation, and animated antennas"

    This thing is appears to be mostly a stationary toy that you can program. Not knocking it for that, but they make a much more capable device with arms and it can roll around. Thinking about getting one but they are USD $700 for the full kit unassembled.
    https://partabot.com/products/... [partabot.com]

    And there is a stationary unit for about half that price that is just the arms.
    https://partabot.com/products/... [partabot.com]

    Maybe I will experiment with their SDK first.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mattr ( 78516 )

      Agreed more interested in something with arms and maybe legs.. even chopsticks and stilts would be okay tbh. Reachy has no arms, its antennae look like they'll poke someone's eye out when they suddenly twitch, and listening/staring at your keyboard is probably not good from a security perspective.. that said, kudos to launching something. Maybe some limbs will be sold on a later reachy? I'm guessing it is for kids and maybe good for elderly like emotional support robot (it's a thing) that can call for help.

  • FHR (Score:3)

    by dohzer ( 867770 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2025 @09:43PM (#65508788)

    Face-hugging robots? No thanks!

  • "Entire" robot industry? (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Wednesday July 09, 2025 @09:50PM (#65508798)

    That is some fine extreme hyperbole right there. I am sure, industrial robotics will be unimpressed, as will be deep-sea robotics or agricultural robotics. Well, basically almost all robotics, really.

  • Why's it called Reachy when it doesn't have an arm?

    • It is named after Lee Child's fictitious ex-military investigator with a penchant to beat bad guys up, because of the camera: nothing escapes its keen observation.

  • It is unclear to me why I would want or need a robot on my desk.

    It's also unclear to me how something that can't move around is a "robot".

    It seems to be something that just sits there and can be programmed. By that standard, my laptop is also a "robot".

  • Dancing moves

    Umm.. what the ...what?

  • I'm looking for something that can make me a sandwich

  • Lame. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Thursday July 10, 2025 @12:05AM (#65508996)

    Why is it even called "Reachy" when it can't reach for anything, or even move. Make an actual walking, or somehow mobile robot that can fetch useful things.

  • I am more interested in the parts list. For instance they seem to be using a mini motion table using linear actuators -- like the ones aircraft training simulators use -- as the base of the robot's neck. This is great at their price point. This could be used in a driving simulator or for industrial testing.

    Any idea about their bill of material? And how to source parts they use?

  • Let me get this straight: A little desktop sized cutesy robot that looks like a crippled Wall-E, doesn't have arms and can't even move besided nodding it's head in 4 directions is going to "disrupt the AI robot industry"? Nonsense.

    LOL! I know Fisher-Technik robot arms from the freakin' 1980ies that were driven by a C64 homecomputer that are more useful than this thing.

  • Thus isn't anything new, it looks a lot, in features, like Philips iCat from 20 years ago. You can hardly call it robotics. You're better of just buying an old R2D2 RC/AI robot toy or an iCybie and mod the shit out of it.
  • And save $299 !
  • we are at the "smell your own farts and tell everyone how great they smell" stage of collapse of the empire.
  • We need Ripley to take care of them

  • The only humans which this robot's physical functionality resembles is quadriplegics, and they are more capable than it is.

    This text was lifted directly from the article on VentureBeat, which is (obviously) a complete shitshow that no one should ever take seriously.

    Too bad this story made it here. Shark jumped again.

    At no point does HuggingFace advertise this as a "humanoid" robot. They describe it as "expressive" which is also quite hyperbolic. It's less expressive than the military/gardening robots in Lap

  • This has less function than the Nintendo R.O.B. released 40 years ago. The R.O.B. at least had arms that could pick things up.

    I don't know how they can claim with a straight face that a device that can't move or interact with objects somehow is an education tool for robotics.

  • It's a $300.00 raspberry pi powered smart speaker that can rotate and tilt from side to side. That's not really disruptive. Really, I struggle to call this thing a robot. I could go as far as "toy robot", but then that makes it one of the most expensive products of its kind.

  • "11-inch humanoid companion"

    This is going to scare the shit out of Tinkerbell. She's like 5 inches but wishes she was 5'. At least she can fly wherever she wants to go.
    R2D2 is not humanoid much in the same way this is not.

  • a completely new level of uselessness.
    Seriously, a speaker-camera combo where you can make the camera wiggle - what does this have to do with a robot, at all?

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