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Hugging Face Introduces Open-Source Humanoid HOPEJr and Desktop Robot Reachy Mini
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Hugging Face Unveils Two Open-Source Robots, Aiming to Lower Barriers in Robotics Development
London, UK – Open-source AI leader Hugging Face today announced the release of two new open-source robots, HOPEJr and Reachy Mini, at the Humanoids Summit. The move signals a continued push by the company to democratize access to robotics hardware and foster AI development in the physical world.
HOPEJr: A Full Humanoid for the Masses
HOPEJr is a full-sized humanoid robot developed in collaboration with The Robot Studio, an entity run by veteran robot designer Rob Knight, known for his work in competitive robotics. The robot boasts an impressive 66 actuated degrees of freedom, enabling capabilities such as walking and object manipulation. A key design goal for HOPEJr is accessibility, with an estimated cost of under $3,000 for components.
According to Remi Cadene, AI for Robotics lead at Hugging Face, the full bill of materials and source files for HOPEJr will be available on GitHub. The project emphasizes a DIY approach, leveraging 3D-printed plastic parts. The Robot Studio's documentation highlights a design philosophy focused on maximizing performance relative to cost, with a keen eye on minimizing the Bill of Materials (BOM) to simplify assembly for a wider community.
Meet HopeJr, a full humanoid robot lowering the barrier to entry! Capable of walking, manipulating many objects, open-source and costs under $3000 🤯 Designed by @therobotstudio and @huggingface 👇
"The intention is to lever the tremendous performance increases that AI software offers to offset the significant differences in low cost hardware," states The Robot Studio's project description. It posits that AI could enable control of less rigid, "bouncy" systems, which are inherently lower cost and potentially safer for human interaction than traditional industrial robots. While HOPEJr is reportedly walking in simulation, the next step is transferring these capabilities to the physical robot.
Reachy Mini: A Desktop AI Testbed
The second robot, Reachy Mini, is a smaller, desktop unit primarily consisting of a head. Developed with the team from Pollen Robotics, which Hugging Face acquired in April, Reachy Mini is designed for testing AI applications. It can move its head, talk, and listen, offering a more compact platform for AI interaction experiments. The estimated cost for Reachy Mini is between 300, depending on tariffs.
Hugging Face's Open Robotics Strategy
These releases align with Hugging Face's broader strategy to expand its open-source ethos into the robotics domain. Clem Delangue, co-founder and CEO of Hugging Face, told TechCrunch that the Pollen Robotics acquisition provided crucial new capabilities for these developments. "The important aspect is that these robots are open source, so anyone can assemble, rebuild, [and] understand how they work, and [that they’re] affordable, so that robotics doesn’t get dominated by just a few big players with dangerous black-box systems,” Delangue stated.
Hugging Face launched LeRobot earlier in 2024, a collection of open AI models, datasets, and tools for robotics. The company has also previously collaborated with The Robot Studio on the SO-101, a 3D-printed robotic arm, and partnered with AI startup Yaak to expand training data for self-driving machines on its LeRobot platform.
Availability and Future Outlook
While an exact shipping timeline for HOPEJr and Reachy Mini has not been announced, Hugging Face expects to begin shipping initial units by the end of the year. A waitlist for the robots is currently open.
The initiative underscores a significant question in the field: can advanced AI truly compensate for the limitations of low-cost hardware in complex machines like humanoids? The open-source nature of these projects invites a global community of developers and researchers to collaboratively explore this challenge. The success of HOPEJr and Reachy Mini could indeed lower the barrier to entry for humanoid robotics research and development, fostering innovation beyond well-funded corporate labs.