Hugging Face acquires Pollen Robotics to expand open-source robotics hardware

Hugging Face has acquired Pollen Robotics, a developer of open-source humanoid robots, to provide the community with affordable and private open-source hardware. This acquisition integrates Pollen's hardware expertise with Hugging Face's LeRobot library, aiming to democratize access to embodied AI for hobbyists and enterprises.

Integration of Open-Source Hardware and Software

Hugging Face is expanding its robotics strategy by combining the LeRobot software platform with Pollen Robotics' hardware. Since the launch of LeRobot in 2024, the Hugging Face Hub has become a primary platform for open robotics models, datasets, and libraries. The acquisition of Pollen Robotics allows Hugging Face to move beyond software and provide physical robots that are open-source and VR-compatible.

Thomas Wolf, co-founder and chief scientist at Hugging Face, states:

We believe robotics could be the next frontier unlocked by AI — and it should be open, affordable, and private. Our vision: a future where everyone in the community, from hobbyists to enterprises, can build or use robot assistants or games, starting from open solutions instead of closed, remote controlled, hardware.

Reachy 2: The First Open-Source Robot Offering

The first hardware product offered through this acquisition is Reachy 2, a state-of-the-art humanoid robot designed for research, education, and embodied AI experiments. Reachy 2 is currently utilized by institutions such as Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon University.

Key technical specifications and capabilities of Reachy 2 include:

  • Manipulation: Human-inspired arms with 7 Degrees of Freedom (DoF) and a specialized "Orbita" joint system for smooth, multi-directional movement in the neck and wrists, capable of manipulating objects up to 3kg.
  • Navigation: A mobile base featuring LiDAR and omniwheels for seamless movement.
  • Control: VR teleoperation capabilities that allow users to see through the robot's eyes for intuitive remote presence.
  • Open Ecosystem: Full access to software, 3D models, and documentation via the Hugging Face organization page.

Reachy 2 is available for purchase at a price of $70,000.

LeRobot Ecosystem and Robotics Timeline

The acquisition follows a year of rapid growth for the LeRobot library, which has grown to over 12,000 GitHub stars and over 100 repositories on the Hugging Face Hub. The robotics venture has followed a strategic timeline of collaborations and releases:

  • 2024: Launch of the LeRobot library led by Remi Cadene; collaboration with The Robot Studio to release the SO-100 arm (a low-cost arm priced around $100); and a partnership with NVIDIA to accelerate data collection and training workflows.
  • 2025: Integration of NVIDIA's GR00T N1 foundation model for humanoid robots, fine-tuned for the SO-100 arm; and the release of the Learning to Drive (L2D) multimodal dataset for spatial intelligence.

About the Companies

Hugging Face serves as a central hub for AI builders with over 7 million users, hosting major open-source models such as Meta's LLaMA 4 and DeepSeek R1.

Pollen Robotics, founded in 2016 by former Inria Flowers team researchers, specializes in open-source humanoid platforms. The company has deployed hundreds of units across 20 countries and won second place at the 2022 ANA Avatar XPRIZE for its work in remote presence and dexterous manipulation.

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