"Software is complex. The main tools to create software cheaper are abstraction and reuse." Robots have all of the software complexity (more software than most

"Software is complex. The main tools to create software cheaper are abstraction and reuse." Robots have all of the software complexity (more software than most software startups I've been involved in), plus hardware complexity. Software doesn't have a supply chain to worry about. Software doesn't have to deal with an unknown environmental issue that makes the screen go black, or a vendor that started shipping you a different part while calling it the same part, or a sales pipeline that involves shipping around tens of thousands of dollars worth of hardware and staff to set it up and demo it, etc. So, a software startup has to solve software problems. A robotics startup has to solve software problems on top of everything else. "Is building a robot from standard components possible?" Sure. Most robots in the market are mostly built from standard components with a few custom built bits for personality or to solve specific problems. "or using some sort of software based mechanical/robotic design tool, similar to the procedural model 3d graphic designers are starting to use?" Sure, there are tools for designing hardware. Robot companies use those tools. But, it doesn't make building and shipping out multi-thousand dollar devices as easy/cheap as shipping software.