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What are SO101 Robot Arms?

SO101 is an open-source, 6-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) robotic arm set designed for desk-based use. It is commonly built using 3D-printed parts and standard hardware servos, making it low-cost and highly customizable. These robot arms expose developers to real robotic hardware without the cost or complexity of industrial systems. The SO101 arm set is often deployed as a dual-arm (leader–follower) configuration, but this setup is optional. Users can also operate a single follower arm independently.

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Physical Components

  • 6-DOF Articulated Arm: A compact 6-DOF robotic manipulator designed for close-range, desk-based operations.
  • Servo-Driven Joints: Uses position-controlled servo motors to enable real-time joint movement.
  • Lightweight, Open-Source Hardware: Built from lightweight, open-source hardware components that are easy to modify and extend.
  • Simple End-Effector (Gripper): Includes a gripper suitable for basic manipulation tasks.
  • Leader-Follower Physical Setup (Optional): Supports a dual-arm configuration useful for teleoperation and imitation learning:
    • Leader arm (manually actuated): Joint positions are sampled.
    • Follower arm (actively controlled): Mirrors the leader’s joint trajectories in real time.
Note: The leader arm is a secondary passive arm used to capture human-guided motion. This setup is optional; you can use only the follower arm if preferred.
  • USB Control from a Computer / SBC: The SO101 can be directly controlled from a laptop or single-board computer (SBC, such as a Raspberry Pi) over USB or serial communication. This allows developers to control the robot without industrial controllers or specialized hardware.

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Set up the SO101

Before configuring the software, you need to physically connect your SO101 hardware components.

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Connect the Hardware Components

Follow this sequence to set up your physical hardware:

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Step 1: Power the Robot Arms

Connect both the leader and follower arms to their power supplies:
  1. Locate the power input on each arm’s controller board.
  2. Connect the appropriate power supply to each arm.
  3. Verify voltage: Ensure the voltage matches your motor specifications
    • Common configurations: 6V or 12V (depends on your motors).
    • Check your SO101 build documentation for the correct voltage.
Using incorrect voltage can damage the motors or controller. Always verify the voltage specification before powering on the arms.

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Step 2: Connect Arms to Computer

Each arm needs a USB connection to communicate with your computer:
  1. Leader arm:
    • Plug one end of a USB-C cable into the leader arm’s controller.
    • Plug the other end into your computer (laptop, Raspberry Pi, or SBC).
  2. Follower arm:
    • Plug one end of a USB-C cable into the follower arm’s controller.
    • Plug the other end into your computer.
Each arm appears as a separate serial device. You’ll identify their specific ports in the software setup steps.

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Step 3: Connect the Camera

If you’re using an external camera for dataset recording:
  1. Connect your USB camera or IP camera to the computer.
  2. Verify the camera is detected by your system.

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Use Cyberwave with SO101

The SO101 robot arm set provides a low-cost and efficient way to get started with robotic manipulation. Using Cyberwave with an SO101 arm set enables the following capabilities:
  • Quick onboarding: Onboard an SO101 arm from the Cyberwave catalog, automatically create its digital twin, and begin interacting with it in just a few clicks, no manual hardware configuration required.
  • Teleoperation: Teleoperate the SO101 using Cyberwave’s SDK, enabling real-time control of the follower arm through a physical leader arm with joint-level mirroring.
  • Remote operation: Operate the SO101 without a leader arm by sending control commands directly from Cyberwave via the browser, SDK, or APIs.
  • Controller policies: Assign external controller policies such as keyboard input, scripted controllers, or vision-language-action (VLA) models using a standardized control interface.
  • Create and export datasets: Record SO101 operations, including video feeds and control actions, and automatically structure them into episodic datasets for training and evaluation.
  • Train and deploy models: Train machine learning models using collected datasets and deploy them directly as controller policies within Cyberwave.
  • Simulation and real-world execution: Test trained models in a browser-based 3D simulated environment using the SO101 digital twin, then deploy the same models to the physical robot without changing the logic.

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Next Steps

Get Started with SO101

Set up teleoperation, create datasets, and train ML models with the SO101 robot arms.