Hardware

Low-Cost Robot Arm

A low-cost robot arm is a manipulator built from hobby-grade servos, 3D-printed structures, and open-source designs at a price of roughly one hundred to a few thousand dollars, in contrast to industrial and collaborative arms costing tens of thousands. Notable examples include the SO-100 and SO-101, the Koch v1.1 leader-follower pair, and the ALOHA rig's ViperX/WidowX setup, all designed around teleoperated data collection for learning research.

Why it matters for physical AI

Cheap arms transformed who can do manipulation research: community-scale data collection and reproducible hardware baselines emerged only after capable platforms dropped below hobbyist price points.