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Innovation
In just 2 hours with 50 episodes, the network learned new tasks: placing a cup (20k steps), rotating to give an apple (40k), and returning to position (60k).
The training dataset for performing various activities is available for anyone to utilize.
Pollen Robotics
Hugging Face, an AI company from Brooklyn has released the first results of its project to develop an open-source robotics program called “Le Robot.”
Their work on a robot from Pollen Robotics has resulted in the humanoid’s ability to do household chores and interact with users autonomously.
A video posted on X by Remi Cadene, an engineer from the firm, showcases how the humanoid Reachy2 quickly comprehends human speech and takes necessary action.
In its efforts to promote research in the humanoid domain, the open-source French robotics company collaborated with Hugging Face to train its robot to handle multiple household chores and ensure safe interactions with humans and dogs.
Pollen Robotics has believed in developing open source, open science, and open data goods ever since it launched Poppy, the first 3D printed open-source humanoid robot, back in 2013.
Open-source robot training
The Reachy2 robot was initially controlled by a human operator who used a virtual reality headset to guide it through various tasks, such as placing cups on a dish rack and safely handing objects like an apple to a person.
According to Cadence, who spoke to VentureBeat, a machine learning algorithm subsequently analyzed 50 short videos, each about 15 seconds long, of these VR teleoperation sessions.
Through this analysis, the algorithm learned to perform the tasks independently, instructing Reachy2 on how to execute them. Each video corresponded to different sensors within the Reachy2 robot.
After training for between 40,000 and 60,000 steps, Reachy2 mastered the skill of rotating to hand an apple and returning to its original position.
The firm has open-sourced the dataset on Hugging Face with the robotics firm, along with the model it trained and employed for the demonstration.
Cadene highlights that the information is available for anyone to utilize. “You can do the same at home on smaller robots,” he said on X.
Aiding the research, Pollen Robotics Reachy2 is ideal for such applications, thanks to its all-new 7-DoF bio-inspired arms (7-pound payload each) and AI-ready circuitry, which enable improved perception, interaction, and manipulation.
AI robotics for everyone
Hugging Face, which maintains one of the largest repositories of open-source AI models and codes, launched its Le Robot project in March 2024.
It aims to create an open-source toolkit designed to democratize AI robotics and inspire a new generation of roboticists. It is now available on GitHub.
“The next step of AI development is its application to our physical world. Thus, we are building a community-driven effort around AI for robotics, and it’s open to everyone,” said Cadence in a post on X.
This toolkit is a comprehensive platform offering a versatile library for sharing, visualizing data, and training state-of-the-art models. Users can access a plethora of pre-trained models to jumpstart their projects.
LeRobot also integrates seamlessly with physics simulators, allowing enthusiasts and developers without physical robotics hardware to simulate and test their AI models in a virtual environment.
Examples of the robotic capabilities are available in the LeRobot library on GitHub, including training robots to navigate unmapped spaces and grasp objects from video.
By making it open-source, Hugging Face hopes a global community of developers, researchers, and hobbyists would contribute to and benefit from the collective progress in AI robotics.
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“We are building a diverse community from various backgrounds, software and hardware, to develop the next generation of smart robots in the real-world,” said Cadence.
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ABOUT THE EDITOR
Jijo Malayil Jijo is an automotive and business journalist based in India. Armed with a BA in History (Honors) from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, and a PG diploma in Journalism from the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, Delhi, he has worked for news agencies, national newspapers, and automotive magazines. In his spare time, he likes to go off-roading, engage in political discourse, travel, and teach languages.