Hugging Face and Pollen Robotics show off first project: an open source robot that does chores

Reachy2, the humanoid robot designed by Pollen Robotics and trained by Hugging Face's Le Robot program, has several key features that are mentioned in the news:

1. Open-source robotics: Reachy2 is designed to be an open-source robot, allowing developers to create various applications for the system. This open-source nature enables a community of developers to contribute to the robot's development and improvement.

2. Household chores: Reachy2 has been trained to do a variety of household chores, such as placing cups on a dish rack and handing objects to humans safely and smoothly. This training was done using a novel process involving teleoperation by a human wearing a virtual reality headset, with machine learning algorithms studying the teleoperation sessions to learn how to perform the tasks independently.

3. Interaction with humans and dogs: Reachy2 has been trained to safely interact with both humans and dogs, making it a versatile robot for various environments.

4. Advanced training: Reachy2 underwent an advanced training process using machine learning algorithms, which studied 50 videos of teleoperation sessions, each around 15 seconds long, to learn how to perform various tasks on its own.

When comparing Reachy2 to its predecessor, Reachy 1, some differences can be observed:

1. Bio-inspired arms: Reachy2 features all-new 7-DoF (degrees of freedom) bio-inspired arms, similar to human beings, with a 3 kg payload capacity each1. In comparison, Reachy 1 had a different arm configuration.

2. Improved capabilities: Reachy2 is said to be "a giant step forward" in terms of capabilities, with its advanced training and ability to perform household chores, whereas Reachy 1 was focused on interacting with people and manipulating objects1.

3. Price and configurations: Reachy 1 was available in different configurations with varying prices, while the pricing and availability of Reachy2 are yet to be announced.

Overall, Reachy2 represents an advancement in the field of open-source robotics, building upon the foundation established by Reachy 1 and incorporating new features and capabilities.

The main functionality of the Reachy2 robot demonstrated in the video posted by Remi Cadene is its ability to perform household chores and interact safely with humans and dogs. The robot is trained to do tasks such as placing cups on a dish rack and handing an apple or other object to a person safely and smoothly. The training process involved tele-operating the robot using a human with a virtual reality headset, and then using machine learning algorithms to study the sessions and enable the robot to perform the tasks on its own.