Build Your Own AI-Powered Robot: Startup Launches Affordable Kits for Beginners

LeRobot, the unicorn startup Hugging Face’s new open-source robotics project, just launched a new tutorial to help regular people build their own AI-powered robots. Remi Cadene, a former Tesla scientist now leading the initiative, announced the update, and all instructions and tutorials are available on GitHub.

“The wait is finally over! We just dropped an in-depth tutorial on how to build your own robot!” wrote Cadene on X, “Teach it new skills by showing it a few moves with just a laptop. Then watch your homemade robot act autonomously.”

The wait is finally over!!! 😁

We just dropped an in-depth tutorial on how to build your own robot!

Teach it new skills by showing it a few moves with just a laptop.

Then watch your homemade robot act autonomously 🤯

1/🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/ReeDvNlrg9

— Remi Cadene (@RemiCadene) August 19, 2024

Hugging Face, an AI and machine learning open-source platform originally founded by French entrepreneurs and now headquartered in the United States announced the new project LeRobot in May. According to Venture Beat, its mission is to “democratize AI robotics and inspire a new generation of roboticists.”

Now, LeRobot has launched its first tutorial, Getting Started with Real-World Robots, available for everyone through GitHub. The new instructions have been designed to teach users to order and build their own robot, connect and configure it, record and visualize the database, prepare policy for evaluation, and visualize results.

The kit with the robot parts—including instructions to print 3D parts— and the links to buy each piece are available on GitHub for customers in the United States, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. The total price for all pieces is $278 or 360€, but Cadene said on X that they are already working on a less expensive version, Moss v1, that won’t require 3D-printed parts and shouldn’t surpass $150.

Users on social media have already expressed excitement. “Finally, a robotics tutorial that’s accessible to everyone! Can’t wait to try it out and see what kind of skills I can teach my robot. Thanks for making robotics more inclusive!” wrote one user on X.

Amateur robot builders could soon try to compete against other mechanisms like Google’s new ping-pong robot or at least build a similar structure.