Robotis says Pollen Microduck actuator deal is not a contract yet and no order is placed

Robotis has not signed a supply contract with Pollen Robotics, the Seoul actuator maker said in a filing to the Korea Exchange on Oct 28. Pollen Robotics SAS, the French company that Hugging Face owns, visited Robotis to discuss the detailed specifications of the Robotis actuators used in its Microduck biped, and the two held a commemorative signing for building a future supply relationship during the visit on Oct 26, Robotis said. The companies are still in technical talks, and no supply contract has been concluded and no order placed.

The filing answers a Hankyung report of Oct 28 that described a large contract with a French company. It also changes the basis of MEKAWIRE's Oct 26 story, which carried Chosun Biz's account of a contract for about 750,000 XL330 actuators, enough for 50,000 Microducks at 15 each. The filing does not mention a volume, a value or the XL330 model; those figures remain Chosun Biz's, from interviews at the signing, and Robotis has not confirmed them. Robotis said it will file again when a disclosable contract is confirmed, or within one month, by Nov 27.

What the filing settles and what it leaves open

A Korean listed company files an unconfirmed clarification (미확정 해명공시) when a report moves its shares before the facts are final. Robotis' filing confirms the relationship and the Microduck application, so the technical choice of Dynamixel actuators for Pollen's robot is on the record from the company itself. What it rules out, for now, is any revenue claim: there is no contract to book, which fits chief executive Kim Byung-soo's remark to Chosun Biz that the deal would not lift this year's revenue.

The open question is scale. Microduck is built to be trained in simulation, as NVIDIA's tutorial on the Hugging Face blog shows with Isaac Lab 3.0, and a cheap standard actuator is what makes that loop affordable for hobbyists and labs. Pollen has already used Dynamixel in its Reachy Mini desktop robot, covered in MEKAWIRE's Hugging Face robotics explainer. Whether the order reaches the reported 750,000 units, and whether Robotis' Magok plant and its planned Uzbekistan plant can supply it, will show in the next filing. The Robotis company page lists its earlier MEKAWIRE coverage.