SO-101 Robot Arm
An open-source robot arm, printed and assembled at home, that I am programming to take my phone from my hand and put it on a wireless charger.
- Role
- Personal project · robotics & software
- Year
- 2026
- Stack
- Raspberry Pi 5, Python, LeRobot, Linux
- Status
- In progress Built and set up; inverse kinematics, vision and voice planned
Problem
The SO-101 is an open-source robot arm from the Hugging Face LeRobot ecosystem. I want mine to do one concrete task: take my phone from my hand and put it on a wireless charger. Instead of training learned policies, I am writing the control, inverse kinematics and vision code for it myself.
Approach
- The arm. The follower arm of the SO-101. Every part is 3D printed, and the arm is fully assembled.
- The computer. A Raspberry Pi 5 running Raspberry Pi OS. The same Pi already runs my home automation, so the arm runs as a separate service beside it.
- The code. Control, inverse kinematics and vision, written by hand in Python instead of a trained policy.
Where it stands
| Stage | Status |
|---|---|
| Print and assemble the follower arm | Done |
| Raspberry Pi 5 setup, arm as its own service | Done |
| Inverse kinematics | Planned |
| Vision | Planned |
| Voice | Planned |
| Full case study | Around March 2027 |
The roadmap runs until about March 2027 and ends in a full case study. This page is the short version until then.