The startup I work at (Automata) is selling a robot arm for £5k ($6.5k). Getting the price that low took a lot of work and there's definitely mechanical tradeof

The startup I work at (Automata) is selling a robot arm for £5k ($6.5k). Getting the price that low took a lot of work and there's definitely mechanical tradeoffs to get there. Robot arms are pretty complicated electromechanical devices with high torque requirements. I suspect one day the manufacture of them will follow a similar path to cars, but until then building them cheaply will be hard. The volumes just aren't high enough yet.