Seeed Studio Officially Launches the reBot Arm B601, Releases Design Files for DIY Robot Builders

Seeed Studio has officially launched the reBot Arm B601, an open source robotic arm the company hopes will prove ideas for both experimentation and real-world deployment — with design files available under a Creative Commons license, as well as a kit of parts available to purchase.

"Built as a developer-first platform," says Seeed's Jennie Wang of the new arm, "reBot emphasizes standardized design, a transparent BOM [Bill of Materials], and a tightly integrated software stack, enabling developers to move from assembly to data collection and algorithm development in a more predictable, streamlined workflow—bridging research-grade capability with real-world usability. More than just hardware, it delivers a complete, ready-to-use stack for embodied AI [Artificial Intelligence] development."

The company teased the reBot Arm B601 around two months back, announcing a plan to hit a sub-$1,000 build budget yet deliver the ability to handle payloads of around 1.5kg (around 3.3lbs), a 650mm (around 25.6") maximum reach that has since been expanded to 767mm (around 30.2"), and a less-than-0.2mm (around 0.008") repeatability across a six-degrees-of-freedom motion range plus the gripper. Seeed also promised full documentation and ongoing support, but at the time had only shared a look at prototypes.

Now, Seeed has made good on its promise with the release of hardware design files for the arm, under the reciprocal Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. "We focus on 'true open source,'" the company says of the release, "not just the code, we unreservedly open-source everything: two versions of the robotic arm [RobStride/Damiao], hardware blueprints, BOM list, software, and algorithms."

While the company estimates that it's possible to build your own reBot Arm B601 from the supplied design files and BOM for under $1,000, it's charging a little more if you want Seeed to do it for you: the full kit is available to pre-order now priced at $1,499 assembled or $1,197 for a kit of parts, with cheaper partial kits available if you're happy 3D-printing, CNC-milling, or laser-cutting some components yourself.

On the software side, Seeed offers a full stack including support for the Robot Operating System (ROS) 1 and 2, MoveIt motion planning, Pinocchio for forward and inverse kinematics and dynamics modeling, and support for NVIDIA's Isaac Sim for physics-based simulation and digital-twin work, along with a Python application programming interface (API). All are supported by online training in the company's "Robotics Academy," too, with more documentation to follow.

The reBot Arm B601 is now available to order on the Seeed Studio store, while the design files can be found on GitHub under the reciprocal Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license, with an assembly guide video to follow in the near future.