Jensen Huang puts four tiny Microduck robots through a stumbling live demo

Four duck-shaped robots walked onto Nvidia’s GTC Berlin stage and gave Jensen Huang an uneven response: some followed instructions, while others wandered, fell or needed encouragement. The Microduck demonstration put Pollen Robotics’ small machines through sitting, standing and somersault commands. Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue subsequently said preorders had surpassed 20,000, according to TechCrunch.

Each robot stood roughly 10 inches tall and weighed less than two pounds. The four initially walked out on their own during Huang’s keynote. He greeted them, asked them to sit, then told them to stand again. Their small scale was accompanied by stomping feet and little electronic noises as they moved through the presentation.

The sequence became less orderly when Huang asked them to take a nap. Three promptly tipped onto the floor. The fourth kept walking for a few steps before falling onto its side. Huang laughed, encouraged them to get up and moved on to a request for somersaults.

A couple completed that movement; others stayed put or needed more encouragement. One robot wandered away, tripped and righted itself. Huang called it back, and it eventually approached and sat down. The same group of machines produced visibly different responses to his instructions, drawing laughter from the audience.

The training behind the tumbles

Huang also described the computing work behind those physical movements. He said the robots were trained in the cloud using Nvidia systems. Their movements were then refined in an Omniverse digital twin—a simulated version of the robot—running on an RTX Spark machine. His explanation connected the stage performance to training carried out before the machines appeared in front of the audience.

TechCrunch describes walking, sitting and standing as basic tricks taught in simulation that ship with the robots. Nvidia’s RTX Spark account also posted a demonstration video on October 21, describing the work as bringing Microduck from simulation into the real world. The post highlighted Huang’s request for a somersault.

The hardware has more moving parts than its small body might suggest. Each Microduck contains 15 motors across its legs, neck and head. Its onboard equipment includes a front camera, a depth sensor and two inertial measurement units. Those components sit inside a robot whose demonstrated movements included walking, sitting, rolling and returning upright.

Microduck’s listed abilities extend beyond the routine Huang attempted onstage. Its articulated beak can pick up relatively light objects from the ground, and attaching wheels allows it to roller-skate. Those are additional capabilities described by Interesting Engineering, rather than the focus of the walking, sitting and tumbling sequence.

Preorders now, deliveries still ahead

The video went viral, TechCrunch reported on October 23. Its account attributed the preorder total to a tweet from Delangue, who said orders had passed 20,000 by the following day. That figure describes preorders, not robots already delivered to customers. Delangue also predicted that Microduck might become the year’s best-selling robot.

Microduck was initially offered for $399 before taxes and shipping. Interesting Engineering reported on October 22 that the initial purchasing window had closed because the robots had sold out. First shipments were expected by Christmas in North America and Europe; delivery remains an expectation rather than a completed milestone.

For future owners, Pollen’s stated proposition goes beyond replaying the keynote tricks. The company says users can teach the open-source robots new behaviors and share those tricks with the community. That puts further training in owners’ hands, rather than limiting Microduck to the walking, sitting and standing behaviors it ships with.