whatro.bot

Arms

A fixed-base manipulator that moves a tool through space — the most common robot in factories, labs and classrooms.

  • robot arm
  • robotic arm
  • manipulator
  • industrial arm
  • cobot

What it is

An arm is a manipulator bolted to something that does not move: a floor, table, wall, ceiling or a mobile base sold separately. It trades mobility for precision and payload: the fixed base makes every reachable point known in advance, so an industrial arm repeats positions to a fraction of a millimetre (desktop bus-servo arms are far looser).

Also called a manipulator, industrial robot or cobot. Here an arm has a fixed base, manipulates, and is not humanoid in form. Joint geometry decides the five children, not size, brand or safety rating.

The types

  • Articulated arm — three or more rotary joints in series; the general-purpose shape, from desktop kits to six-axis cobots.
  • SCARA arm — two vertical rotary joints plus a vertical slide; fast, stiff planar pick-and-place.
  • Parallel arm — several chains share one platform (delta pickers); very fast, small workspace.
  • Cartesian arm — three linear axes at right angles; gantries and XYZ stages.
  • Cylindrical arm — rotary base with linear lift and reach.

What to compare

Attribute Why it matters In this catalogue
payload What it lifts at the wrist, tool included 0.25 kg (Elephant Robotics myCobot 280) – 25 kg (Doosan Robotics H2515)
reach Radius of the working envelope from the base 280 mm (Elephant Robotics myCobot 280) – 1750 mm (Universal Robots UR20)
axes Four for planar work, six to reach any pose, seven to reach it around obstacles 4 (ABB Robotics IRB 360 FlexPicker) – 7 (Kinova Gen3)
repeatability How closely it returns to a taught point 0.02 mm (ABB Robotics GoFa CRB 15000) – 1 mm (Trossen Robotics WidowX AI)
collaborative Rated to run beside people without a fence — an attribute, not a category yes: Elite Robots CS66, FAIRINO FR5, Techman Robot TM AI Cobot S Series, Universal Robots UR20, Universal Robots UR5e
mounting Floor, table, wall, ceiling or mobile base table (18), ceiling (8), floor (7), wall (7)
sdk Vendor pendant only, or open APIs and ROS ros1 (10), python (9), ros2 (8), cpp (8), proprietary (2)

Price picture (observed 2026-10-28)

  • Professional / industrial: USD 3,495 (DOBOT MG400) to EUR 50,400 (Doosan Robotics H2515).
  • Research: USD 278 (Seeed Studio SO-ARM101) to USD 33,500 (Kinova Gen3).
  • On quotation: ABB Robotics IRB 360 FlexPicker, Dobot Magician, Dobot Magician E6, Epson T6-B All-in-One SCARA Robot, FANUC CRX-10iA, Franka Research 3, Intuitive da Vinci 5, JAKA Zu 7, Techman Robot TM AI Cobot S Series, Universal Robots UR20, Universal Robots UR5e.

Prices are the latest observation per product, in the seller's currency; see each record's offers for history and VAT notes.

In the catalogue

Professional / industrial: ABB Robotics GoFa CRB 15000 · ABB Robotics IRB 360 FlexPicker · AgileX Robotics PiPER · AUBO i5 · DOBOT CR5A · DOBOT M1 Pro · DOBOT MG400 · Doosan Robotics H2515 · Elite Robots CS66 · Epson T6-B All-in-One SCARA Robot · FAIRINO FR5 · FANUC CRX-10iA · Intuitive da Vinci 5 · JAKA Zu 7 · KUKA LBR iisy · RealMan Robotics RM65-B · Techman Robot TM AI Cobot S Series · Universal Robots UR20 · Universal Robots UR5e
Research: Elephant Robotics myCobot 280 · Elephant Robotics myCobot 320 · Franka Research 3 · Kinova Gen3 · ROBOTIS OpenMANIPULATOR-X · Seeed Studio reBot Arm B601 · Seeed Studio SO-ARM101 · Trossen Robotics WidowX AI · Unitree Z1
Education, hobby & consumer: Dobot Magician · Dobot Magician E6

Edge cases

  • Cobot vs industrial robot: same category; see collaborative.
  • Arm sold with its own mobile base: mobile manipulator.
  • Two arms with torso and head on a mount: fixed-base humanoid. No head: arm_count: 2.

Related

Robot · Humanoid · Legged robot · Ground robot · Mobile manipulator · Aerial robot · Aquatic robot · Wearable robot · Stationary robot · Kit · Articulated arm (27) · SCARA arm (2) · Parallel arm (1) · Cartesian arm (0) · Cylindrical & spherical arm (0) · End-effector · Teleoperation

Rule of membership

Fixed base (floor, table, wall, ceiling or a separately sold mobile base); manipulates; not humanoid in form.

Category rb-1 in the whatrobot taxonomy.