This weekend, we hosted the Seattle chapter of the global Hugging Face LeRobot Hackathon at our new office in the AI House. For 48 hours, teams across the world hacked on robots, collected data and trained novel policies!
Blue skies and robots made for a perfect combo in Seattle as teams formed around the versatile SO-100/101 robotic arms. From students and software developers to hardware hackers and even artists, everyone was united by a drive to build something new.
Kevin Rohling kicked off the event with a great deep dive on training control policies using SmolVLA, an open lightweight foundation model gaining traction in robotics.
The atmosphere was electric, reminding me of the early days of Arduino, a moment when accessibility and open platforms ignited a wave of creativity and innovation in embedded systems.
I truly believe we’re living through an Arduino moment for robotics right now. 3D-printable robot arms, paired with affordable, embedded GPUs and open foundation models, are lowering barriers that once required $10K+ in specialized hardware and a PhD to traverse. Now, you just need curiosity and a weekend to start prototyping.
Of course, a 3D-printed arm isn’t an industrial cobot, just as an Arduino isn’t an iPhone, but Arduino paved the way for thousands of startups, smart devices, and careers. Similarly, these emerging robotics platforms are cultivating the next generation of engineers, creators, and entrepreneurs.
And here’s what excites me most: these accessible platforms generate tons of data — from physical interactions, control policies, successes, and failures. This data is the fertile ground where an eventual “ChatGPT moment for robotics” may take root, enabling the massive leaps in capability we all anticipate.
At Roboto, we’re proud to support this new wave by providing powerful analytics tools that help teams harness this data (and even our office, too!)
Congratulations to the winning team here in Seattle who trained two impressive policies: one that could scoop up coffee beans, and another that could draw shapes by holding a pen!
Thanks to the amazing team at Hugging Face, especially Marine Caous, who organized the global event. And a very special thanks to John Hubberts on our team who tirelessly printed and assembled robotic arms in advance for people to use!
The future is bright, and it’s being built one robot at a time!
