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Microduck

pollen-robotics.com

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71–80 of 415 posts

Re: Microduck

#71

Post by asadm »

Philip-J-Fry wrote: post #39
_joel wrote: post #22

It's either this or https://mondorobotics.com/ and I'm torn. Obviously it's for my daughter and I will just be safety checking, definitely, 100%.

That's a completely different class of robot. The Beni robot is just a toy, it's just connect the app and drive it around, record videos and do some fancy tricks like flips. It is not meant to be a platform you program yourself. The Microduck is meant to be a hacker toy. Train it yourself, write software, hack it, etc. It depends what you're trying to get for your daughter. Is it something to get her into robotics? T…

The creators of Beni seem to have promised that the platform will be open (including sim2real parts of Beni).

I have ordered Beni for my family. It's sturdy and more practical for careless fun.

Re: Microduck

#72

Post by coreyh14444 »

raudette wrote: post #63
k3liutZu wrote: post #4

My wife would love one of these. She's still bitter we didn't get the Sony dog a decade ago.

I remember it being the 90s :) the first generation AIBO was discontinued TWO decades ago. (it does look like subsequent models were launched about a decade ago)

Yep. I was at a dotcom (ZEFER) back then and we owned an OG AIBO robot for the office. This was 1999 I'm pretty sure.

Re: Microduck

#73

Post by jamesponddotco »

telecuda wrote: post #36

It doesn't walk like a duck, but Reachy Mini by HF/Pollen Robotics is a great entry-level robot. And you get to assemble it! Direct links: https://pollen-robotics.com/microduck/ https://pollen-robotics.com/reachy-mini/

I use one to control my house with Home Assistant. It's pretty great, and it was a lot of fun to assemble.

Re: Microduck

#74

Post by nater5000 »

cekanoni wrote: post #61

It looks cool no doubt, but i would be concerned about privacy.

Well all of the operations are local and on-board, so unless you explicitly send your data somewhere, privacy shouldn't be a concern.

Re: Microduck

#75

Post by lambda »

Tried out the simulator and was surprised to find that the movement keys are ZQSD; then realized that's the equivalent of WASD on an AZERTY keyboard. Checked and sure enough, Pollen Robotics is a French company.

They may want to at least add a preference for keyboard layout, pretty sure that QWERTY and QWERTZ are much more common worldwide than AZERTY.

Re: Microduck

#76

Post by tokai »

forgetfreeman wrote: post #66
tokai wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years ago I worked with developmentally disabled people, that absolutely loved animals but could never be left alone with one much less own one. This kind of product would have brought so much joy to those people.

I think it's distasteful to screen ethically questionable business practices with segments of the disabled community. If this product was being marketed towards the need of developmentally disabled individuals I feel like there would be less grounds for criticism, however meeting those needs in no way excuses outright fabrication of marketing claims aimed at the broader consumer market, and especially children.

You find something you made up distasteful? Get a grip. Its just a Furby.

Re: Microduck

#77

Post by lrvick »

Now that Nvidia owns huggingface, I fear their days being able to support open source products are over.

Re: Microduck

#78

Post by echelon »

lambda wrote: post #75

Tried out the simulator and was surprised to find that the movement keys are ZQSD; then realized that's the equivalent of WASD on an AZERTY keyboard. Checked and sure enough, Pollen Robotics is a French company. They may want to at least add a preference for keyboard layout, pretty sure that QWERTY and QWERTZ are much more common worldwide than AZERTY.

> Pollen Robotics is a French company

Acquired by HuggingFace, a French-American company.

Acquired by Nvidia, an American company.

Re: Microduck

#79

Post by lagrange77 »

jamesponddotco wrote: post #73
telecuda wrote: post #36

It doesn't walk like a duck, but Reachy Mini by HF/Pollen Robotics is a great entry-level robot. And you get to assemble it! Direct links: https://pollen-robotics.com/microduck/ https://pollen-robotics.com/reachy-mini/

I use one to control my house with Home Assistant. It's pretty great, and it was a lot of fun to assemble.

Sounds interesting, could you elaborate on what you do with?

Re: Microduck

#80

Post by lagrange77 »

tamimio wrote: post #52

I hope it’s not built on ROS or rely on it in any way! Also kudos for bringing the joy of robotics back, since now most companies are riding the “defense” bandwagon and all robot companies I know suddenly are defense companies and visiting their sites is like the most dystopian thing ever, making it harder to find contract/jobs for people who want to make robotics for good not killing machines.

What would be so bad about relying on ROS in any way?
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