Robotis (108490.KQ) will supply about 750,000 actuators for Micro Duck, the duck-shaped robot developed by French robotics firm Pollen Robotics.
Robotis signed a supply contract for its Dynamixel actuators with Pollen Robotics on the 26th at its headquarters in Seoul's Gangseo district. Pollen Robotics put current demand for Micro Duck at 50,000 units, and each robot carries 15 Robotis actuators. The deal is worth about 3.5 billion won ($2.4 million).
Pollen Robotics is a robotics developer under Hugging Face, the artificial intelligence platform company. Nvidia recently signed a deal to acquire Hugging Face, and roughly 15,000 additional orders came in after Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang demonstrated Micro Duck. Matthieu Lapeyre, co-founder and chief executive of Pollen Robotics, said actuator demand next year is expected to reach at least 1 million units as Micro Duck orders climb.
Micro Duck was initially developed as a platform for robot reinforcement learning, but its uses have recently expanded to include companion robots. Demand for related components is expected to grow as consumer interest widens beyond research purposes. Kim Byoung-soo, chief executive of Robotis, said the company is running its production facilities at full capacity and will be able to respond in earnest to rising demand from the second quarter of next year. "We will continue to do our best in production and quality control," Kim said.