Hugging Face Makes Its Move in Robotics

Hugging Face, one of today’s largest and most popular repositories of open source artificial intelligence (AI) models, is gearing up to step out of the digital world and into the real world. It has just been announced that Hugging Face will be acquiring Pollen Robotics, a developer of open source humanoid robots that happily run open source AI algorithms. It sounds like a match made in robot heaven.

The acquisition marks Hugging Face’s first major move into hardware and represents a significant shift in the direction of embodied AI. Pollen Robotics is best known for its flagship humanoid robot, Reachy 2 — a $70,000, VR-compatible robot designed for research, education, and testing cutting-edge AI in physical environments.

Founded in 2016, Pollen Robotics is still new on the scene, but it has already made a name for itself in global robotics circles, with its robots deployed at institutions like Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon. Their designs emphasize openness and modularity, with both hardware and software made for tinkering, customization, and research — core values that align strongly with Hugging Face’s open source mission.

The Reachy 2 platform features human-inspired, seven-degree-of-freedom arms, the expressive Orbita joint system, and a mobile base equipped with omniwheels and LiDAR. It supports VR teleoperation and is built for easy integration with modern AI frameworks. Pollen has also made extensive documentation and 3D models available to the public via their Hugging Face page.

The hardware and software support make Reachy 2 an excellent platform for embodied AI, but the high price tag keeps it out of the hands of most would-be experimenters. But with the acquisition, Hugging Face plans to not only improve Reachy 2, but also work toward making it a more affordable and accessible robot platform. Ultimately, the goal is to fully open source the hardware, letting users 3D-print parts and assemble robots themselves.

Major tech players, such as NVIDIA, are lining up to support Hugging Face’s robotics efforts, and the DIY robot community is booming, so the chance of them achieving this goal appears to be quite good. And that is good for all of us. With efforts like this underway, the future of robotics looks like it may be open, accessible, and a lot more human.