uArm, The Cutest Industrial Robot $185 Can Buy

A complete robotic arm assembly for your desk, fully funded on Kickstarter.

Let’s not kid ourselves: We’ve all dreamed of having a robot in the house. Sure, the robot might be more…Terminator than industrial robot arm, but who wouldn’t want an industrial arm hanging out on their desk all day?

If you’re a budding robotics enthusiast, but you lack the funds to buy the kind of arm that builds cars and other robots, Chinese manufacturer UFactory is here to help.

The uArm is an “Arduino-powered desktop 4-axis parallel-mechanism robot arm.” In other words, it’s an industrial robot that fits on your desk. At $185, it’s cheap enough for many robotics buffs and students alike, and it’s already fully funded on Kickstarter. There are 43 hours left in the campaign as of this post, and UFactory has raised $190,000 so far — far above the modest $5,000 goal they started with.

$185 gets you everything you need to start roboting, housing, servos, and all. An extra $34 gets you a model with a suction cup, so you can mount the uArm to your desk without using screws. Kits ordered through the Kickstarter page should be delivered later this month.

If your interest is piqued, but you don’t have the cash to burn on The Little Industrial Robot That Could? All the hardware is going to be open sourced after the Kickstarter ends this week.