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Hugging Face has released its latest robotics release for developers to begin experimenting and testing.
On Wednesday, the AI development platform announced that it is now accepting orders for its Reachy Mini Desktop Robots. The company first unveiled prototypes of the devices in May, along with a larger humanoid robotic device named HopeJR.
Hugging Face announced that it will release two versions of Reachy Mini. The first version, the Reachy Mini Wireless is wireless, costs $449, and runs on a Raspberry 5 Mini Computer. The second version, the Reachy Mini Lite is $299 cheaper but requires a computer source.
Open source robots are available in a kit that developers can build themselves. The Reachy Minis, which are about the same size as a standard stuffed toy, come with two screens that act as eyes and two antennas. Once built, these robots can be fully programmed in Python. These devices come with a pre-installed set of demos, and are integrated with the Hugging Face Hubis the open source machine-learning platform of the company. It gives users access more than 1.7 millions AI models and over 400,000 datasets. Clem Delangue, CEO of Hugging face, told TechCrunch that they decided to launch the Reachy Mini in two versions based on feedback from the original prototype. Early testers found that their daughter, aged five, wanted to be able take the desktop robot with her around the house. The company assumed she wouldn’t have been the only one.
Delangue said, “The goal is to continue carefully getting feedback from users and the community. That’s how we have always built products at Hugging face as an open-source community platform.” Delangue explained that the open-source nature of the platform allows users to modify, extend, and change it in any way they choose. The Reachy Minis allows users to build and test AI applications using the desktop robot. Delangue said that anyone will be able build their own features and apps for Reachy Mini, which they can then share with the community. “We hope that it will unleash the creativity of builders, to build millions of applications, millions different features, that they can then share with the community so that anyone, like plug and play, can use it.”
Reachy Mini Lite is expected to start shipping next month. The wireless version should be available later this year. Delangue said that it was important to begin shipping immediately after orders were placed, rather than a long and unclear pre-ordering process. They want to get robots into users’ hands as quickly as possible.
Delangue said that this release is in line with what Hugging Face targets for its robotics programs in general — open-source hardware that gives users total control. Delangue stated that he felt it was important for the future robotics to be open-source, rather than being closed-source, black boxes, [and] concentrated into the hands of few companies. “It’s a very scary world to think that millions of robots are in people’s homes, controlled by a single company, and the users cannot control or understand them. I would prefer to live in a place or a world or a country where everyone has some control over robots.
Becca, a senior writer for TechCrunch, covers venture capital trends. She covered the same beat previously for Forbes and the Venture Capital Journal.
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