In Bordeaux, France, a group of engineers has created robots that can not only make eye contact with you but also understand your emotions—they are breaking the boundaries between code and life, allowing machines to truly comprehend humanity. In April 2025, significant news emerged in the AI community: the open-source AI platform Hugging Face announced the acquisition of the French robotics company Pollen Robotics. Founded in 2016, this startup stands out in the robotics field with its highly humanoid robot designs and firm commitment to open-source principles. Pollen Robotics was co-founded by former researchers Matthieu Lapière and Pierre Rouanet, who infused over a decade of research experience into a mission: to bring robots out of the laboratory and into our daily lives.—01 From Laboratory to Real World The birth of Pollen Robotics stemmed from a simple ideal: to make robotic technology more accessible and useful in the real world. The founding team came from a renowned French research center, where they worked together in a robotics lab for over ten years, experiencing firsthand how advanced robotic technologies were often confined within academic institutions and high walls. In 2016, they decided to change this status quo by establishing Pollen Robotics, gathering talented and independent-minded individuals in a mission-driven company. One of their early achievements was the creation of “Bobby”—the first 3D-printed humanoid robot, which laid the foundation for their subsequent development. Unlike traditional robotics companies that pursue closed technologies and patent protections, Pollen Robotics chose an unconventional path: complete openness. They made knowledge and technology freely available to everyone under open-source licenses, a principle that later became their core competitive advantage.02 Technological Masterpiece: The Bionic Art of Reachy 2 The technological culmination of Pollen Robotics is embodied in its flagship product—the Reachy 2 humanoid robot. This research platform, priced at approximately $70,000, has been deployed in laboratories at top institutions such as Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon University. The most striking feature of Reachy 2 is its highly humanoid design. The robot is equipped with seven degrees of freedom in its mechanical arms, inspired by biological mechanisms, and can carry a load of 3 kilograms with a single arm. This bionic design not only mimics the size of human arms but also replicates their natural and precise movements. The robot’s head is based on a unique spherical joint, capable of displaying vivid animated expressions. Combined with dual 1080p cameras, a microphone array, and speakers, Reachy 2 can not only interact with people but also understand and respond to human emotions. In terms of intelligence, Reachy 2 operates on ROS2 and Python SDK, integrating a powerful onboard computer and embedded TPU to run machine learning model inference at high speed locally. It also supports innovative VR remote operation applications, allowing users to “enter” the robot’s body to perform complex tasks from anywhere.03 Open Source Philosophy: A Moral Commitment to Knowledge Sharing Pollen Robotics has embedded the spirit of open source into its corporate DNA, viewing it not just as a technical strategy but as a moral commitment. The company explicitly states: “We make our knowledge and technology freely available to everyone under open-source licenses.” This commitment is reflected in their offering of a 50% discount for open-source projects and even 100% free services for environmentally protective projects. Unlike traditional tech companies, Pollen Robotics publicly rejects any military funding, with their ethical code displayed on the wall: “Sorry.” In product design, they emphasize durability and reparability because “our planet is already filled with waste.” They insist on local production and ensure that worker conditions are respected. This steadfast value system has not hindered the company’s growth; rather, it has earned them a unique market position. Thomas Wolf, co-founder of Hugging Face, points out that the transparency of open source allows more people to audit code vulnerabilities, avoiding the security risks of closed-source systems.04 Business Ecosystem: From Research Platform to Home Assistant Pollen Robotics’ main business revolves around Reachy 2, primarily targeting the research and education markets. This robot has been deployed in over 100 units across more than 20 countries, with clients including renowned institutions such as Hugging Face, Accenture, CNRS, and Ecole Polytechnique. Although the current price is relatively high, Pollen Robotics has a grander vision—to bring robotic technology to a broader user base. Following their collaboration with Hugging Face, they launched the “Le Robot” project, an open-source robot capable of performing various household chores, showcasing the potential for robots to enter domestic scenarios. Hugging Face plans to reduce the cost of robots through scaled production and an open-source ecosystem, aiming to enable household users to use simple robots for tasks like folding laundry at “affordable prices.”05 Future Direction: Integrating into Hugging Face’s Embodied Intelligence Blueprint After being acquired by Hugging Face, Pollen Robotics’ development direction further integrates with the forefront of AI. The acquisition allows the entire Pollen team to join Hugging Face, with the original company’s laboratory in Bordeaux, France, continuing to operate as a robotics research center. Hugging Face’s CEO, Clément Delangue, stated: “We want everyone to be able to build their own robotic companions, rather than relying on expensive closed systems.” This vision aligns closely with the original intent of Pollen Robotics. In the future, both parties will jointly promote the development of embodied AI—where AI models not only process digital information but also interact with the physical world through robotic bodies. The combination of Hugging Face’s AI infrastructure and Pollen’s robotics expertise creates a technological synergy that neither company could achieve alone. The 1.5 million models and datasets hosted on the Hugging Face platform provide an indispensable intelligence layer for the next generation of robots.—
Today, in Pollen Robotics’ factory, engineers are continuously refining every movement and expression of the robots. Their goal is not to create machines that replace humans but to design robots that can coexist harmoniously with people. As the company firmly believes: “In a complex and unconstrained world, human-machine understanding and mutual acceptance are essential.” In this technological revolution where humans and machines dance together, Pollen Robotics is uniquely infusing warmth into cold, hard code with its distinct French elegance and determination.
Note: This article on robotics was assisted by AI.