Pollen Robotics Launches Microduck Open-Source Biped Robot

Pollen Robotics has released Microduck, a 25 cm open-source biped robot designed for reinforcement learning and physical AI tinkering. The robot is available for pre-order at $399 and is scheduled to ship before Christmas 2026. It is equipped with 15 motors, a camera, LiDAR, two IMUs, and a grasping beak.

The device utilizes a sim2real workflow, allowing behaviors to be trained in the MuJoCo physics simulation before deployment to the hardware. Microduck ships with seven pre-trained policies, including walking, roller skating, and recovery from a fallen position. The company has made the entire software stack, including the SDK and RL training stack, available on GitHub under the Apache-2.0 license.

Thomas Wolf of Hugging Face demonstrated the robot's capabilities on X, showcasing an image detector that enables the robot to follow a laser pointer. The robot is available in four different colorways.