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Hugging Face just launched a $299 robot that could disrupt the robotics industry

venturebeat.com

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Re: Hugging Face just launched a $299 robot that could disrupt the robotics industry

#51

Post by sheepscreek »

garciasn wrote: post #36
nico wrote: post #23

The robot mostly looks like a very basic alternative to the Lego robotics offerings (mindstorms/technic/spike). And, they are in more or less the same price range as well Not sure what huggingface is going for here. Seems like a big distraction for the company

I am not sure what HF is going for here either, because it doesn't actually do anything; yet? I mean, great: I have another $300 toy in the makerspace arena that I can program. Awesome; I write code and am heavily invested personally and professionally with LLMs (open-weight models running on local GPUs as well as LLM chatbots that everyone knows, like Gemini, OpenAI, and Claude). Now what? It'll sit on my desk and m…

Perhaps they needed to do something to justify raising another round?

Re: Hugging Face just launched a $299 robot that could disrupt the robotics industry

#53

Post by phh »

ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #22

They say "$299," but it looks a ways off from hitting the shelves. In my experience, these "intended MSRP prices" tend to be ... aspirational .

Looking at the BOM (6 cheapest servos, one usb camera, a usb hub, a microctronller ,two mics, 30cm-high low-precision plastic) the price looks fairly realistic to me. I could imagine it at half the price on aliexpress. The manufacturing or sourcing doesn't seem complicated. So overall it looks like a very realistic endeavor.

The only negative point I see: Pollen Robotics doesn't seem used to do mass market/cheap products. But as I said, it seems to be a pretty simple production (I mean, they are probably running everywhere like crazy because nothing is ready and everything is broken, but they should be able to accomplish this)

Re: Hugging Face just launched a $299 robot that could disrupt the robotics industry

#55

Post by Aurornis »

The blog post has actual details, but I’m even more confused after reading it: https://huggingface.co/blog/reachy-mini

The “disrupt the robot industry” is an insane lie from Venture Beat. They clearly okay with lying if they know it will drive traffic.

As best I can tell, this is meant to be a little humanoid style desk toy to act as the interface for communication. It can move its head, wiggle antennas, and rotate, but can’t manipulate anything.

Re: Hugging Face just launched a $299 robot that could disrupt the robotics industry

#56

Post by gmuslera »

waltbosz wrote: post #34
MeteorMarc wrote: post #30

There is a Black Mirror episode about a robot doll!

Aren't there a couple of episodes like that? Are you referring to the episode with Miley Cyrus? The others I'm thinking of are the plush bear that contains a AI copy of a human mind, and the killer robot dogs.

In fact, I was expecting that it used Miley Cyrus voice. Nothing tells better that you are different if you are able to do that after the Scarlett Johansson case.

Re: Hugging Face just launched a $299 robot that could disrupt the robotics industry

#57

Post by Aurornis »

wackget wrote: post #33

Nothing in the article, the video, or the manufacturer's own blog post explains what this thing actually does . Seriously. This is an ephemeral marketing puff piece. As far as I can infer, the thing's basically a smart speaker which rotates.

The blog explains it: It can move its head, antennas, and rotate. It’s a little humanoid desk toy to stand in for computer interaction.

It has nothing to do with the disrupting the “robot industry” like the Venture Beat headline says. It’s a little animated thing to house the AV equipment.

Re: Hugging Face just launched a $299 robot that could disrupt the robotics industry

#58

Post by phh »

xnx wrote: post #25

"Reachy" is a weird name for a toy that has no arm or hand capable of interacting with its environment.

So, my brain defaulted to "people are smart, so it makes sense", so it understood it as "it's the toy you keep within reach". But if you look at Pollen Robotics product, you see they have a "Reachy", which can indeed move, and has arms to interact with its environment. So yeah, it's a weird name. It reaches your heart through the feeling it communicates to you with its antennas?
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