need a good robotic arm for a newbie!!!

hi ,

i am a fourth year electronics and communication student , and i am intending to make a project in robotics ,
i don't have a good experience in mechanics , so i need to buy a robotic arm for educational purposes to use it in my project , i need it to be cheap , good quality to handle experiments , good degree of freedom , and nearly as the size of a human arm ,

i don't know where to search , or how much it cost , so please , any help will be appreciated!!!!!

Good and cheap don't usually fit together well, especially when talking about robotics. What is your budget? $50? $5000?

On the lower end, there's something like the OWI-535 for about $40. If you are thinking of a 'real' industrial robot arm, you're
looking at several thousand dollars (used).

Radio Shack carried a robotic arm 10 or 15 years ago. Around 1/4 the size of a human arm.

Check Ebay and you may find a new or used item.

That was the Armatron. I still have mine from the early 80's. IIRC, there were two versions - one with an easily hackable interface and the other one relying on an insanely complicated electro-mechanical gear system that used only a single motor to control all movements. Imagine that - six degrees of motion running off of a single motor. Amazing design.

thanks guys for the help

Nick C.

thanks for your reply , the OWI -535 looks a cheap one , and it give me the idea that i want a robotic arm with a remote , not with a controller , that way it will be cheaper and gives what i want , because i want to program the controller myself , although i know nearly nothing about inverse kinematics , but i think i can work around that with an artificial intelligence program.

i think what i need now is an arm near that one , but with no controller.


also lego robotic arms looked very cool , but a LEGO in a university ?? i am afraid the project wont be taken seriously !!!! although i am not sure how much effort will it take to make an arm like that , i need to concentrate on what i know.

The nice thing about the hobby servo-driven arms is that servos are closed-loop, so positioning can be fairly precise and repeatable. The OWI arm is open-loop. Still, there are lots of projects/videos online of people hacking the OWI for their own uses:

thanks again Nick C

i think the lynxmotion AL5D is the best choice until now , it's still somehow expensive , but not that much , the site gives good options like buying the arm with no electronics , which's what i need , also it offers servo brackets that can be easily attached to other servos and brackets.

i think that means i can upgrade the 5 DOF AL5D into 6 DOF arm by adding new servo and bracket.

but still i was wondering if there's something cheaper , it seems that AL5D is made of a high quality aluminum , why there isn't a robotic arm made of PVC plastic for example?
it's quite tough , not the most beautiful , but it's fine .

i think there's some gap in products between the OWI and AL5 , i think i need something in between , not the toy-like OWI , but also not a laser cut aluminum arm!!!