Hugging Face Unveils Home-Performing Robot

Hugging Face has introduced its first humanoid robot developed under its open-source robotics program named Le Robot.

The robot, called Reachy2, is designed by Pollen Robotics, another open-source robotics company based in Bordeaux, France. Pollen Robotics partnered with Hugging Face to train the robot to perform a variety of household tasks and interact safely with humans and pets.

Initially, Reachy2 was operated remotely by a human wearing a virtual reality headset, controlling the robot to perform different household chores. These tasks included placing cups on a dish rack and safely handing an apple or other objects to a person. The machine learning algorithm studied 50 video clips of these remote operation sessions, each lasting about 15 seconds, before learning how to perform these tasks independently and guiding Reachy2 to execute them.

Each video is linked to a different sensor within the Reachy2 robot. After 60,000 training steps, Reachy2 learned how to turn, move its hand, grasp the apple, and return it to its place. The company stated, "We have open-sourced this dataset through Hugging Face along with the model we trained and used for the demonstration. This dataset is available for anyone to use. You can use it with small-sized household robots."

This move to make advanced AI robots open-source comes at a time when there is a general increase in the development and funding of useful robots outside laboratories. Robotics companies have raised hundreds of millions on the promise of using new concepts in machine learning, such as using large language models in robotics to make them interact with people and the environment.

It is likely that Hugging Face will pressure competing robotics providers as it offers the technology for free. Pollen Robotics has a rich history in developing accessible and open-source technologies for real-world applications. The company started in 2013 with Poppy, which it claims is the first open-source 3D-printed humanoid robot designed for research purposes. Since then, Pollen Robotics has dedicated itself to creating open-source products and working with scientists and innovators to explore new uses and make robots accessible to everyone.

The initiative to advance open-source robotics by Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics signifies a pivotal step in integrating sophisticated AI into everyday life, potentially transforming how household chores are managed and expanding the accessibility of robotic technology.