Modern robotics with deep learning/imitation learning is surprisingly accessible. The low-cost robot arm I used in this project is very easy to 3D print and assemble: https://github.com/trzy/robot-arm
An iPhone app is used to teleoperate the arm and gather examples of an action. You then train the model and deploy it and the arm performs the actions based on current camera input and joint angle state.
A robot arm is fun, I assembled a 6 DoF one with metal parts and hobby servos that cost around £70 if I recall correctly.
I find it kind of interesting how because hobby servos are used, which don't have encoders on, when you turn it on and set the servo positions it jerks into life.
The problem I find with mine, is that all servos are the same, I think ideally the bottom servo needs more power. I need to try slightly higher voltage though too - I think I can use up to ~6V.
An iPhone app is used to teleoperate the arm and gather examples of an action. You then train the model and deploy it and the arm performs the actions based on current camera input and joint angle state.