Sorry for being MIA for a bit. All 120 units are now sold out. I’ve created a waitlist at https://vassarrobotics.com/newsletter to keep you updated on when the next batch will be available (most likely in late July).
Thank you so much for everyone’s support. My top priority now is to get all the orders shipped on time and with high quality.
show comments
loxias
Firstly, at the $219 price point you can have my money already.
Beyond that, things that appeal to me are basically anything which increase the likelihood I can accomplish high dexterous fine motor control skills, for things like tinkering and DIY assembly. I think that would include extra wrist DOF and a longer-reach variant.
Integrated cameras are an interesting idea, but I'd like to be able to swap them out for my own.
My dream is to have some sort of multi-arm table at home. I imagine holding a circuit board, small component, soldering iron, and wire with four robotic arms I control with shaky hands from my laptop. :D
show comments
GlenTheMachine
You need some technical specs on the website. How many DOF does it have? Does it have joint angle sensing? If so, what's the resolution? What's the interface to the servos? What's the payload capacity? Does it have integrated motor controllers? How long is it, and what does the dexterous workspace look like?
As a roboticist, what I'd vote for, in order, is:
- more degrees of freedom
- interchangeable tools, either an actual tool changer (unlikely at the price point) or a fixed bolt pattern with electronic passthroughs
- better joint sensing, e.g. absolute encoders, joint torque sensing
- fingertip force sensing
show comments
softservo
Love this !! I have been searching for a homegrown store selling the so101 and other open source robots. Took me 6 weeks to get my unassembled kit for ~$250 from wowrobo (and it got stuck in inspections at the border). Would be cool to connect to learn more about your plans and offer some suggestions for improvements based on my experience so far.
yardie
Of course this arrives right after I order all the electronic parts and just kicked off the 24+ hour 3D print job to complete my SO-Arm101.
But I’m routing for you!
show comments
guywithahat
You should put it on Amazon; we used a robotic arm in one of the classes I taught, and for logistics reasons it was basically the only way we could order stuff. Plus it helps with discovery.
I'm sure there's an extra fee but it's sometimes just impossible to order things if you're a big organization from small sites like this.
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polishdude20
Can you explain more how this is possible? For a layman like me, what is happening when you tell the robot to do something and how does it know it's going to the right place?
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GordonS
Wow! Recently my son has been asking about doing a project with a robotic arm, and this looks amazing, especially at the hobbyist-friendly price point. And adding in AI is really cool - and just the thing to really grab the attention of an eight year old boy :) Will these be available in the UK, perchance?
A bit of an aside, but how hard is it to get into building RC aeroplanes, compared to FPV copter drones?
As someone who's long dreamed of owning a robotic camera control arm, but who doesn't have a spare $50K kicking around to buy one, I've been following the development of these kinds of projects with great interest. While this particular arm doesn't look like it would have enough payload capacity or smooth enough motion for the use cases I have in mind, the fact its a couple hundred bucks means something that does what I need it to do for an actually affordable price isn't likely too far off.
dimitry12
Do I understand correctly that chess-moving demo decomposes into:
- you recorded precise arm-movement using leader-arm - for each combination of source- and target- receptacles/board-positions (looking at the shim visible in the video, which I assume ensures the exact relative position of the arm and chess-board);
- the recorded trajectories are then exposed as MCP-based functions?
Bought the kit. Thank you for the great price! Are table-clamps included?
bredren
I'm down to buy the kit and build but need some idea for how long it takes. Like, I was able to detail finish and assemble a 3D violin but could not make the time and space to assemble a full 3D printer and had to sell it.
Would you please provide more info on what's involved for the kit? Ranges are okay.
show comments
iamflimflam1
Interesting - I was just thinking the other day that a well implemented MCP server driving a robot with access to a camera could be a really interesting project.
show comments
davidweatherall
Hey Charles, annoyed I missed out on the first batch, signed up to the newsletter looking forward to the next one!
I thought your product page could use a slightly nicer UI. - I'm building an app that let's people spin up multiple variations of their pages and easily implement new UIs. - I like to put HN websites through it whilst I'm training it up to see if I can improve them.
If you want the html + css, it's here free of charge, I've split each one up with a ## Variation 1/2.. etc.. just let me know what you think - https://pastebin.com/WGNieVmq
show comments
pbrb
Ordered. This is so cool. I also started looking at LeKiwi... I think I'm going to have to figure out how to make this thing mobile.
show comments
martythemaniak
Neat! Does this work with open source models like pi0 and OpenVLA? How does the inference-time teaching you outline work exactly?
show comments
Nevermark
I love the arm/typewriter "printer"!
It's not exactly on topic (other than fun ideas, begetting fun ideas), but a USB-C/WiFi driven typewriter would be a hoot.
Your price is too low. You should raise your price until you aren't selling out.
show comments
didip
The one day I was too busy at work... this came out. Darn.
The price point is crazy good. If it indeed can be so flexible in learning a number of things, just take my wallet. Having an extra hand for N number of DIY projects is invaluable.
show comments
cjblomqvist
I'm curious, since it's a YC/VC company - what's the business plan/model/vision? I assume it's not selling robot arms for $219? (Please correct me if I'm wrong!)
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catwhatcat
Great product, congrats on the quick sales! Big fan of robotics for a long time myself. If you're in need of some website development, I'd love to chat >>hello at joshmleslie dot com<<
quadrature
I'm curious about how the perception works, how do you find correspondences between the arm camera and the stationary camera ?
laidoffamazon
Alright, watching the video - I'm sold, even at a sped up rate. How do I buy? I'll do in-town pickup if that's faster!
pachevjoseph
Sold out unfortunately. When do you think you’ll restock?
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peepeepoopoo135
Interesting project! Sorry if I'm out of the loop, but how exactly does the MCP server hand off visual data to an external LLM service to formulate the robot control actions? It's an interesting concept, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how it works, because I thought MCP was text-oriented.
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timmg
Funny, I was just about to build an SO-101, but tariffs adding $100 to the price of the servos annoyed me.
How do I buy your kit, please?
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TuringNYC
I've been looking for a robot arm for a while to play ping pong with me. Curious:
1. Would we be able to control it deterministically via an API, rather than relying on LLM?
2. What is the latency on this? Do you think it would be fast enough in deterministic mode to play ping pong?
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drodgers
Love it! I've been looking for an excuse to dive into AI planning for robotics, and this looks like it will make it easy to get started.
Just one question: does the power supply have a 220/240v option (I'm in Australia)?
show comments
hugs
congrats on the launch. i started selling robots for $100/each back in 2012. (tapster). realized over time, it's hard to stay in business at that price point if that's all you're selling. my bots are now closer to $10K/each. you can probably keep the price low if you have some other part of the business model to fill the gap (consulting or some hosted service or an ai/data play). since you're a yc company, i assume that's the case.
lchengify
I wonder if I can strap this to my Roborock from 2020 and train it to pick up socks.
Roborock sells a new model that does this [1] but it costs $3,000 and I refuse to pay that on principle when I know it's likely a straightforward model with some unsupervised training.
Also I can probably fix it easier once it (definitely) breaks at some point due to collisions.
I've been looking for a cheap 7 DOF arm. The only reason I haven't bought SO100/101 yet is that it's 6 DOF (and that delivery to Europe is hard to find..)
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Tepix
Having built the SO-ARM 100, i feel this post is missing a lot of context for those who have not yet looked at Hugginface's LeRobot project.
As another robot hobbyist, I wish there were more detailed documentation on how things work. So many projects online just show a working demo—usually on YouTube—and it's impossible to decipher what’s actually happening, or if the robot is simply following some predefined movements.
codekansas
This is super cool! What have been your favorite and least favorite things about open source robots?
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hbarka
Can this be coupled with some kind of vision AI to open/close my doggie door when pup-pup wants to?
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surfmike
This is great! Given demand, I would consider a kickstarter for upcoming batches!
_pktm_
Thank you for sharing this. Please let me know if/when it’s back in stock.
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ZeroCool2u
Already sold out :( Any idea when the unassembled kits will be back in stock?
cadr
Just to check - do you ship from the USA? (international is confusing these days...)
show comments
vasusen
I love the idea of a trainable robot arm as a learning device at that price point.
However, seeing the chess demo instantly makes me think of that horrible tragedy with the robotic arm breaking a kid's finger. How strong is this to be used around kids?
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madduci
Unfortunately already sold out, but really a cool product
pama
First world problems: can I email you and specify a later shipping date?
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namank
What does it take to fold my laundry? Not a joke. I'll pay.
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pj_mukh
So cool!
I would easily pay $1000-$1500 if you put two of these on a wheel base and made it all structurally sound. Extra points if the arms sit at least 1-2 feet of the ground and can reach the ground.
sexy_seedbox
Can I put this on my desk and ask it to slap my co-worker?
I like the bit of humor at the start of the video, but the bit goes on for a bit too long
Ninjinka
Love how instantly recognizable the default NextJS app is
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aesch
I'd be interested to hear about your experience working with suppliers. How did you go about finding suppliers and haggling with them?
rohitpaulk
Where do I buy one?
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asadm
neat! what camera module did you guys settle on.
vavooom
What a unique and fun build! So curious to hear about what ways it can be programmed and used for personal projects.
dataminded
Enjoy my money!
anythingworks
really cool, hoping you're able to ship it in time, given the overwhelming demand
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Javantea_
Can you compare your robot to Baxter? I'm curious to see how this works.
Congrats on shipping!
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polskibus
How can I order it to Europe?
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whazor
can you have two arms work together?
I can personally not solder, but I would love to have two arms that can just do it for me.
joshu
saw you guys setting up over the weekend! good luck tomorrow
whoomp12342
combine one of these with an automated robotic mower and have it pick weeds, then we are in business baby!
fragmede
Need more videos, especially at 1x speed.
show comments
qwert12345887
I was searching for something like this just this week, its sold out currently, could you set up waitlist email when you can ship more please.
show comments
myth_drannon
For anyone who missed out, you can find online shops that sell similar kits.
brcmthrowaway
One thing i dont undersrand about the leader follower architecture. Can I enter the kinematics myself?
EGreg
As a related question, is there some way to buy or make plush toys that are robots underneath? I wanted to use a computer to train them and download the program onto the toy, or use wifi to send the telemetry and animate it. The toy would have a microphone, speaker etc.
matt3210
Post a demo without 30sec youtube ad
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pryelluw
A link to the product page, please.
show comments
DarmokJalad1701
Ordered. I haven't even watched the video. Let's see how this goes. Lol
s3graham
Please let me know when you're ready/able to ship another batch.
jaydeegee
All gone :( let us know when you have more stock please.
Sorry for being MIA for a bit. All 120 units are now sold out. I’ve created a waitlist at https://vassarrobotics.com/newsletter to keep you updated on when the next batch will be available (most likely in late July).
Thank you so much for everyone’s support. My top priority now is to get all the orders shipped on time and with high quality.
Firstly, at the $219 price point you can have my money already.
Beyond that, things that appeal to me are basically anything which increase the likelihood I can accomplish high dexterous fine motor control skills, for things like tinkering and DIY assembly. I think that would include extra wrist DOF and a longer-reach variant.
Integrated cameras are an interesting idea, but I'd like to be able to swap them out for my own.
My dream is to have some sort of multi-arm table at home. I imagine holding a circuit board, small component, soldering iron, and wire with four robotic arms I control with shaky hands from my laptop. :D
You need some technical specs on the website. How many DOF does it have? Does it have joint angle sensing? If so, what's the resolution? What's the interface to the servos? What's the payload capacity? Does it have integrated motor controllers? How long is it, and what does the dexterous workspace look like?
As a roboticist, what I'd vote for, in order, is:
- more degrees of freedom
- interchangeable tools, either an actual tool changer (unlikely at the price point) or a fixed bolt pattern with electronic passthroughs
- better joint sensing, e.g. absolute encoders, joint torque sensing
- fingertip force sensing
Love this !! I have been searching for a homegrown store selling the so101 and other open source robots. Took me 6 weeks to get my unassembled kit for ~$250 from wowrobo (and it got stuck in inspections at the border). Would be cool to connect to learn more about your plans and offer some suggestions for improvements based on my experience so far.
Of course this arrives right after I order all the electronic parts and just kicked off the 24+ hour 3D print job to complete my SO-Arm101.
But I’m routing for you!
You should put it on Amazon; we used a robotic arm in one of the classes I taught, and for logistics reasons it was basically the only way we could order stuff. Plus it helps with discovery.
I'm sure there's an extra fee but it's sometimes just impossible to order things if you're a big organization from small sites like this.
Can you explain more how this is possible? For a layman like me, what is happening when you tell the robot to do something and how does it know it's going to the right place?
Wow! Recently my son has been asking about doing a project with a robotic arm, and this looks amazing, especially at the hobbyist-friendly price point. And adding in AI is really cool - and just the thing to really grab the attention of an eight year old boy :) Will these be available in the UK, perchance?
A bit of an aside, but how hard is it to get into building RC aeroplanes, compared to FPV copter drones?
Where can i find the specs. I am actively working on some project with robot arm and found following appealing eventhough this doesnt include servo or cameras or controllers. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808789646447.html?spm=a2g...
While I don't think this will ship in time. There is a global online hackathon using these robot arms on Hugging Face June 2025, 14-15. https://huggingface.co/LeRobot-worldwide-hackathon
As someone who's long dreamed of owning a robotic camera control arm, but who doesn't have a spare $50K kicking around to buy one, I've been following the development of these kinds of projects with great interest. While this particular arm doesn't look like it would have enough payload capacity or smooth enough motion for the use cases I have in mind, the fact its a couple hundred bucks means something that does what I need it to do for an actually affordable price isn't likely too far off.
Do I understand correctly that chess-moving demo decomposes into:
- you recorded precise arm-movement using leader-arm - for each combination of source- and target- receptacles/board-positions (looking at the shim visible in the video, which I assume ensures the exact relative position of the arm and chess-board);
- the recorded trajectories are then exposed as MCP-based functions?
Bought the kit. Thank you for the great price! Are table-clamps included?
I'm down to buy the kit and build but need some idea for how long it takes. Like, I was able to detail finish and assemble a 3D violin but could not make the time and space to assemble a full 3D printer and had to sell it.
Would you please provide more info on what's involved for the kit? Ranges are okay.
Interesting - I was just thinking the other day that a well implemented MCP server driving a robot with access to a camera could be a really interesting project.
Hey Charles, annoyed I missed out on the first batch, signed up to the newsletter looking forward to the next one!
I thought your product page could use a slightly nicer UI. - I'm building an app that let's people spin up multiple variations of their pages and easily implement new UIs. - I like to put HN websites through it whilst I'm training it up to see if I can improve them.
here's what my app came up with for your site: https://streamable.com/vbby9q
If you want the html + css, it's here free of charge, I've split each one up with a ## Variation 1/2.. etc.. just let me know what you think - https://pastebin.com/WGNieVmq
Ordered. This is so cool. I also started looking at LeKiwi... I think I'm going to have to figure out how to make this thing mobile.
Neat! Does this work with open source models like pi0 and OpenVLA? How does the inference-time teaching you outline work exactly?
I love the arm/typewriter "printer"!
It's not exactly on topic (other than fun ideas, begetting fun ideas), but a USB-C/WiFi driven typewriter would be a hoot.
EDIT: Found [0]
And for the reverse ... boom! (click! clack!) [1]
[0] https://www.nutsvolts.com/magazine/article/turn-a-typewriter...
[1] https://www.usbtypewriter.com
Your price is too low. You should raise your price until you aren't selling out.
The one day I was too busy at work... this came out. Darn.
The price point is crazy good. If it indeed can be so flexible in learning a number of things, just take my wallet. Having an extra hand for N number of DIY projects is invaluable.
I'm curious, since it's a YC/VC company - what's the business plan/model/vision? I assume it's not selling robot arms for $219? (Please correct me if I'm wrong!)
Great product, congrats on the quick sales! Big fan of robotics for a long time myself. If you're in need of some website development, I'd love to chat >>hello at joshmleslie dot com<<
I'm curious about how the perception works, how do you find correspondences between the arm camera and the stationary camera ?
Alright, watching the video - I'm sold, even at a sped up rate. How do I buy? I'll do in-town pickup if that's faster!
Sold out unfortunately. When do you think you’ll restock?
Interesting project! Sorry if I'm out of the loop, but how exactly does the MCP server hand off visual data to an external LLM service to formulate the robot control actions? It's an interesting concept, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around how it works, because I thought MCP was text-oriented.
Funny, I was just about to build an SO-101, but tariffs adding $100 to the price of the servos annoyed me.
How do I buy your kit, please?
I've been looking for a robot arm for a while to play ping pong with me. Curious:
1. Would we be able to control it deterministically via an API, rather than relying on LLM?
2. What is the latency on this? Do you think it would be fast enough in deterministic mode to play ping pong?
Love it! I've been looking for an excuse to dive into AI planning for robotics, and this looks like it will make it easy to get started.
Just one question: does the power supply have a 220/240v option (I'm in Australia)?
congrats on the launch. i started selling robots for $100/each back in 2012. (tapster). realized over time, it's hard to stay in business at that price point if that's all you're selling. my bots are now closer to $10K/each. you can probably keep the price low if you have some other part of the business model to fill the gap (consulting or some hosted service or an ai/data play). since you're a yc company, i assume that's the case.
I wonder if I can strap this to my Roborock from 2020 and train it to pick up socks.
Roborock sells a new model that does this [1] but it costs $3,000 and I refuse to pay that on principle when I know it's likely a straightforward model with some unsupervised training.
Also I can probably fix it easier once it (definitely) breaks at some point due to collisions.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/shorts/vHVQxXVgBm4
I've been looking for a cheap 7 DOF arm. The only reason I haven't bought SO100/101 yet is that it's 6 DOF (and that delivery to Europe is hard to find..)
Having built the SO-ARM 100, i feel this post is missing a lot of context for those who have not yet looked at Hugginface's LeRobot project.
The most important link to get started is probably https://github.com/huggingface/lerobot
This is awesome.
Can I order one where I 3d print the in printable bits and you supply the rest. Not to save money but to have a more tweakable design.
I love that you're open sourcing the design! Would be curious to hear your experience as you build and sell these.
How backportable are the upgrades? If I have an SO-101, can I just replace a few parts to mount a camera and use your software?
Is the longer term plan for industrial robots? Would be cool if you could put other end effectors on it.
How dangerous is this? If I buy/print one of these arms, how cautious would I need to be to prevent the arm from hurting me or other adults?
I am seeing different prices everywhere: - $199 https://shop.vassarrobotics.com/ - $219 https://shop.vassarrobotics.com/products/navrim-robot-that-l... - $599 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbDTCwzFeIU
Which one is the actual price?
As another robot hobbyist, I wish there were more detailed documentation on how things work. So many projects online just show a working demo—usually on YouTube—and it's impossible to decipher what’s actually happening, or if the robot is simply following some predefined movements.
This is super cool! What have been your favorite and least favorite things about open source robots?
Can this be coupled with some kind of vision AI to open/close my doggie door when pup-pup wants to?
This is great! Given demand, I would consider a kickstarter for upcoming batches!
Thank you for sharing this. Please let me know if/when it’s back in stock.
Already sold out :( Any idea when the unassembled kits will be back in stock?
Just to check - do you ship from the USA? (international is confusing these days...)
I love the idea of a trainable robot arm as a learning device at that price point.
However, seeing the chess demo instantly makes me think of that horrible tragedy with the robotic arm breaking a kid's finger. How strong is this to be used around kids?
Unfortunately already sold out, but really a cool product
First world problems: can I email you and specify a later shipping date?
What does it take to fold my laundry? Not a joke. I'll pay.
So cool!
I would easily pay $1000-$1500 if you put two of these on a wheel base and made it all structurally sound. Extra points if the arms sit at least 1-2 feet of the ground and can reach the ground.
Can I put this on my desk and ask it to slap my co-worker?
re: X25, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42770629
I like the bit of humor at the start of the video, but the bit goes on for a bit too long
Love how instantly recognizable the default NextJS app is
I'd be interested to hear about your experience working with suppliers. How did you go about finding suppliers and haggling with them?
Where do I buy one?
neat! what camera module did you guys settle on.
What a unique and fun build! So curious to hear about what ways it can be programmed and used for personal projects.
Enjoy my money!
really cool, hoping you're able to ship it in time, given the overwhelming demand
Can you compare your robot to Baxter? I'm curious to see how this works.
Congrats on shipping!
How can I order it to Europe?
can you have two arms work together?
I can personally not solder, but I would love to have two arms that can just do it for me.
saw you guys setting up over the weekend! good luck tomorrow
combine one of these with an automated robotic mower and have it pick weeds, then we are in business baby!
Need more videos, especially at 1x speed.
I was searching for something like this just this week, its sold out currently, could you set up waitlist email when you can ship more please.
For anyone who missed out, you can find online shops that sell similar kits.
One thing i dont undersrand about the leader follower architecture. Can I enter the kinematics myself?
As a related question, is there some way to buy or make plush toys that are robots underneath? I wanted to use a computer to train them and download the program onto the toy, or use wifi to send the telemetry and animate it. The toy would have a microphone, speaker etc.
Post a demo without 30sec youtube ad
A link to the product page, please.
Ordered. I haven't even watched the video. Let's see how this goes. Lol
Please let me know when you're ready/able to ship another batch.
All gone :( let us know when you have more stock please.
https://set.mit.edu
this page design is so beautiful
the website is pretty bad....could use a lot friendlier buttons, layout, more pictures, maybe some videos
Please don't call it a root if it uses cheap servos