Pick the right robot, then build it

Short, sourced guides that link to real builds.

• How to set up Anki Vector with wire-pod (2026)

  Get a secondhand Anki Vector working in 2026 with wire-pod, the free voice server that replaces the dead Digital Dream Labs servers: firmware, install on Windows, macOS, Linux or a Pi, sign-in, and hooking Vector up to OpenAI or a local Ollama model.

• Give your AI agent a robot body

  Nine open-source ways to give an AI agent a physical body: Hermes Gadget and Caduceus for Hermes Agent, ROS MCP Server for any ROS robot, an SO-101 arm a coding agent can draw with, and a $7 ESP32 that lets an agent use an iPhone. Hardware, cost and difficulty for each.

• Codex and ChatGPT hardware projects people actually built

  16 hardware projects built with Codex and OpenAI's tools, from an ESP32 greenhouse vent to an agent-designed badge and a Kindle AI dashboard, with parts, builders and source links.

• What can Reachy Mini do? Real projects and apps

  Reachy Mini is $399 (Lite) or $499 (Wireless) and takes 2 to 3 hours to build. Real projects people run on it, with costs, difficulty and the most-liked apps.

• Cheap ESP32 robot projects you can build

  ESP32 robot projects with real prices: a $7 board that lets AI use an iPhone, the $99 Stack-chan desk robot, talking XiaoZhi bots and ESP32 robot dogs.

• Best robot arm under $200

  The open-source robot arms you can build for under $200 in 2026, with real BOM prices from each project's README: SO-101, Koch v1.1, and what to pick for AI and LeRobot.

• SO-101 vs SO-100

  SO-101 vs SO-100 compared: wiring, assembly, leader-arm motors, price and LeRobot support, from The Robot Studio's official repo. Short answer: buy the SO-101.

• SO-101 parts list and cost

  How much an SO-101 arm costs: $121.94 for one follower arm or $229.88 for a leader + follower pair in US parts, per The Robot Studio's BOM. Servo gear ratios, kits, and where builds get stuck.

• Robots you can build with AI

  Open-source robots you can set up and control with AI agents like Claude Code, Codex or Hermes Agent: LLM-controlled arms, ESP32 voice desk bots, Hermes Gadget, ROS MCP and more, each with a copy-paste install prompt.

• AI hardware for robot and agent builds

  42 boards from Joseph Zhou's AI Hardware list that suit robot and agent builds: ESP32 voice boards, AI cameras and Jetson or Hailo robot brains.