Hugging Face Launches $299 Robot That Could Disrupt Entire Robotics Industry (venturebeat.com)
- Reference: 0178321572
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/07/09/2051245/hugging-face-launches-299-robot-that-could-disrupt-entire-robotics-industry
- Source link: https://venturebeat.com/ai/hugging-face-just-launched-a-299-robot-that-could-disrupt-the-entire-robotics-industry/
> Hugging Face, the $4.5 billion artificial intelligence platform that has become the GitHub of machine learning, announced Tuesday the launch of [1]Reachy Mini , a $299 desktop robot [2]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.
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> 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.
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> 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."
[1] http://hf.co/blog/reachy-mini
[2] https://venturebeat.com/ai/hugging-face-just-launched-a-299-robot-that-could-disrupt-the-entire-robotics-industry/
Re: (Score:2)
I think I bought one their USB chargers on Amazon.
I've seen this movie (Score:2)
The Doctor will talk them all into self-destructing after the robots try to take over.
Re: (Score:2)
> 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.
Like early computers (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
> It sounds like that's where this robot is now, but still, it's pretty cool.
It sounds like a [1]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
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle_(robot)
Re: (Score:2)
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!
No thanks (Score:2)
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
Re: (Score:2)
This might age poorly, but as of this time, HuggingFace is the good guys.
Re: (Score:2)
Oh, are they going to "do no evil"?
Possibly a new low for Slashvertisments (Score:2)
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)
No arms, no legs, no manipulator I can see in their demo. What does it _do_ but look around?
Re: (Score:2)
> 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.
Re: (Score:2)
> 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:3)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: "The Github of machine learning"? (Score:2)
It's like Lyft for AirBnB for GitHub.
No arms and it doesn't roll (Score:2)
" 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.
[1]https://partabot.com/products/... [partabot.com]
And there is a stationary unit for about half that price that is just the arms.
[2]https://partabot.com/products/... [partabot.com]
Maybe I will experiment with their SDK first.
[1] https://partabot.com/products/lekiwi-robot-arm?variant=43021825540211
[2] https://partabot.com/products/so-arm101?variant=43026077155443
FHR (Score:2)
Face-hugging robots? No thanks!
"Entire" robot industry? (Score:2)
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.
Love it, but... (Score:2)
Why's it called Reachy when it doesn't have an arm?
Unclear (Score:1)
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".
They had me at... (Score:2)
Dancing moves
Umm.. what the ...what?
Its a movable camera (Score:2)
I'm looking for something that can make me a sandwich
Or it could be a flop. (Score:2)
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: (Score:2)
> 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. :-)
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
> 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.
Re:Or it could be a flop. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.