Where to get a cheap simple robot arm?

Hi,

For my final year project at school (I study technical physics) I have to get a robot arm to put objects under a laser beam.

My supervisor thinks that it's not a good idea if we build a robot ourselves because it's going to take a lot of time and it probably won't work that good.

So my question is: Where can I buy a robot arm that meets the following conditions:

• Width at least 20 cm
• It has to carry about 700 grams of load
• It doesn't cost much more than €150 (about 210 US $)

It has to be an arm with the motors already in it. If it already has a microprocessor in it, great, if not, no problem, we can put in one ourselves.

We would like to program the arm in some language that looks like C, C++, C# or something like that. So if the controller can handle that, that would be great.

So my question is: Where can I get a robot arm that meets the following conditions?

Thanks in advance,
DrDonut

Here's one for $130US:

https://www.owirobots.com/cart/index.php?l=product_detail&p=58

EDIT: Whoops, just read max weight. I'll look for another one.

EDIT#2: Found one, although it's a bit pricey. Lifts about 650+ grams.
**broken link removed**

Thanks for the tip. It is a bit expensive, but it might be possible, I just have to ask my supervisor.

I think this one is going to get us somewhere

https://www.crustcrawler.com/products/arm5.php?prod=0
https://www.crustcrawler.com/products/arm6.php?prod=11

Costs more though and still can't reach your 700g of load (which is a LOT for a hobby level robotic arm).

theinfamousbob said:

Here's one for $130US:

https://www.owirobots.com/cart/index.php?l=product_detail&p=58

EDIT: Whoops, just read max weight. I'll look for another one.

EDIT#2: Found one, although it's a bit pricey. Lifts about 650+ grams.
**broken link removed**

Click to expand...

THe lift capability of that arm is only 10 oz = 283g...650g+ is the weight of the arm itself.

A crane-type thing rather than a polar coordinate arm would be much more cost effective with much higher weight capability. YOu only need it for placing objects into a laser after all. But you'd probably have to build it yourself.

Is it possible to do somthing to reduce the amount of weight the arm has to lift. You are asking a lot for a low cost arm.

Hi, thanks for all your replies

dknguyen said:

A crane-type thing rather than a polar coordinate arm would be much more cost effective with much higher weight capability. YOu only need it for placing objects into a laser after all. But you'd probably have to build it yourself.

Click to expand...

I think this is quite a good idea, if we can get the crane acuurate enough. Thanks for the tip.

3v0 said:

Is it possible to do somthing to reduce the amount of weight the arm has to lift. You are asking a lot for a low cost arm.

Click to expand...

No, the load of 650g is only the weight of the object itself. So far there is no weight for the gripper included.

Thanks for all the tips!

dknguyen said:

THe lift capability of that arm is only 10 oz = 283g...650g+ is the weight of the arm itself.

Click to expand...

...you'd be right. I guess I missed that.