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Get your SO-100 robot arm

The SO-100 robot arm is a 5-DOF robotic arm with a 1-DOF gripper. It’s a popular robot arm for AI robotics, with many users. The SO-100 robot arm is open source and can be built using off-the-shelf components and 3D printed parts. If you’re looking to buy SO-100 robot arms already assembled, with cameras and software, you can get a starter pack on our shop.

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How to build the SO-100 leader arm? Step by step assembly guide

Here is a step-by-step video guide to build the SO-100 robot arm:

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Attach the SO-100 arm

Find a table and fix the SO-100 robot arm using the 2 table clamps in the kit (see image below).
Make sure the arm is securely fastened and won’t move. Clear away any clutter that could get in the way of the arm’s movement.
SO-100 fixed using clamps

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Plug everything together

In this order:
  1. Plug the SO-100 robot arm into the power supply using the black 12V power supply.
  2. Plug one end of the USB-C cable into the SO-100 robot arm and the other into your computer (laptop, raspberry pi, etc).
  3. If you have additional cameras, plug them into your computer
Below is an example of a full setup with a SO-100 arm, a stereoscopic camera plugged on a Raspberry Pi. Full setup

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Start phosphobot

Once everything is connected and powered on, run the following command in a terminal to install the phosphobot software: 
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/phospho-app/phosphobot/main/install.sh | bash
Then, fire up the the server: 
phosphobot run
Go to localhost in your web browser to access the phosphobot dashboard. Go to Control to control your robot using only your keyboard! phosphobot dashboard

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Calibrate the robot

This step is only relevant if you built your own robot arm: the assembled robots that we ship are already calibrated.
Your SO-100 robot should be automatically detected by the phosphobot software. However, you still need to calibrate the robot to make it work properly. Follow this video guide to calibrate your robot: Here are detailed written instructions to calibrate your SO-100 robot arm:
Your calibration is saved in the ~/phosphobot/calibration folder of your home directory. You can edit this file in a text editor to further refine the calibration. For example, to tune the PID.

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About LeRobot calibration

If you’re using LeRobot framework for training, you’ll need to calibrate the robot with LeRobot after this phosphobot calibration. You need first to calibrate with phosphobot, then with LeRobot. The LeRobot calibration process is compatible with phosphobot, but independent. This only needs to be done once.

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Start controlling the robot

Your robot is now ready to receive commands! In the dashboard, click the Control button to control the robot arm. In the first tab, you can control the robot with the keyboard. You can also use leader arm control, a gamepad, or a Meta Quest VR headset. Learn more. Robot_Controller

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Next steps

You can now control your robot, record your first dataset and train an AI model to make the robot move by itself.

Control your robot

Teleoperate a real robot

Record a dataset

How to record a dataset with your robot

Train an AI model

How to train an AI model from a dataset you recorded