Meet Microduck, a tiny robot that can learn to walk in a virtual world before trying those moves in real life. Nvidia and Hugging Face have published a new walkthrough showing how developers can train the duck-shaped robot to walk, handle uneven ground, and recover after falling over.

The Oct. 21 demonstration uses Nvidia’s Isaac Lab and Newton simulation tools. Instead of teaching the robot every movement by hand, developers let simulated versions practice until they develop a walking strategy that can be transferred to physical hardware.

Meet Microduck, the $399 robot with 15 motors

Microduck was developed by Pollen Robotics and Hugging Face.…