In the 1980s, there was Armatron. It was the robotic arm toy offered by Tandy electronics that started it all. Today, it’s a whole new world. You can control robotic arm kits with an Arduino ...

He calls it the Robo Marionette. He’s using a MeArm 4 DOF robotic arm, a Sensel touch interface, an Arduino Uno, and a servo shield for the Arduino to control the MeArm.

It is similar to old control systems using a synchro (sometimes called a selsyn), but uses potentiometers and servo motors. An Arduino handles reading the potentiometers and driving the servos.

I just want to flag this one, an arm aimed at students: the Braccio ++ kit, for an introduction to robotics, letting you lift, place, twist objects under digital control ...

There will also be four complete Arduino-based robot programming workstations at the Atmel booth to allow attendees the opportunity to program a simple robot vehicle. Attendees can learn basic robot ...