If it weren’t so goddamn cute, I’d question the name. But look into the l’il bot’s face and tell me it doesn’t look like a Reachy? What is it, you ask? It’s a desktop robot designed for “human-robot interaction, creative coding, and AI experimentation,” its creator (its god, as you may say) puts it.
Fully programmable in Python, with JavaScript and Scratch to follow, Reachy Mini is designed as a sort of real-world tool with which to practice AI coding skills. Whip something up in code on the connected computer, and then watch Reachy Mini move around. A little. It’s stationary, after all.
a li’l desktop ai buddy
“Whether you’re an AI developer, hacker, researcher, teacher, robot enthusiast, or just coding with your kids on the weekend, Reachy Mini lets you develop, test, deploy, and share real-world AI applications from your desk, using the latest AI models,” reads the marketing spiel from Hugging Face, the developer.
Reach Mini is available in two types: Reachy Mini and Reachy Mini Lite. Reachy Mini ($449) comes with a Raspberry Pi 5 and an internal battery built into it so that you can use it over a wireless or wired connection, while Reachy Mini Lite ($299) can only be used via a wired connection to your programming device.
The Lite version begins shipping out in “late summer 2025,” while the more premium version will be “rolling out in batches from fall 2025 through 2026,” according to Hugging Face. Plenty of people have shown their interest by plonking down their money.
“Quick update and announcement,” posted Thomas Wolf, co-founder and chief science officer of Hugging Face, on X last week, “24h since we announced Reachy Mini and we’re quickly approaching $500,000 in pre-orders(!).
“We knew this product was special (everyone on the team wanted one), but the response has been even more overwhelming than expected—thanks for the incredible feedback!”
The post Say Hi to the Reachy, a Robot… From Hugging Face appeared first on VICE.
