[sgbaird]

Moved from vertical-cloud-lab/byu-vcl#56 when the arm work split into this repo. Review comments and the commit-by-commit history stay there, on copilot/research-6dof-robots; this branch has the same files in one commit.

Research document covering used/new market options for 6DOF arms and mobile bases to bring mobile manipulation capability into the lab.

Arms covered

• Universal Robots (UR3e/5e/10e) — used $7K–$38K, industry standard
• UFactory xArm 6/7 — used $3.5K–$9K, best value ratio
• AgileX PiPER — ~$2.5K new, cheapest 6DOF entry point
• Unitree Z1 — ~$7K used, purpose-built for mobile manipulation
• Franka Emika Panda — used $5.8K–$13K, research gold standard (verify Research vs Industry version)

Mobile bases covered

• MiR100/200/250 — industrial AMRs, used $7.5K–$15K+
• AgileX Scout Mini / Ranger Mini — ROS-native, $5K–$18K
• TurtleBot3/4, Husarion, SMARTmBOT — budget tier $210–$2.5K
• Clearpath Dingo/Jackal/Husky — premium research platforms

Integrated mobile manipulators

• Hello Robot Stretch 3 ($24,950) and DIY arm+base combos with cost estimates

Procurement resources

• 8 used marketplaces (eBay, Machinio, Surplus Record, Robots Done Right, etc.)
• 30+ saved-search keywords organized by category for alert setup
• Tiered recommendations from ~$3K to $45K+

Original prompt

---

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>Let's also keep an eye out for 6DOF arms and mobile bases</issue_title>
<issue_description>A UR3e, UR5e, or UR10e would be awesome. For mobile bases, could be either low cost or more industrial (e.g., MiR).

Let's keep an eye out and subscribe for

A used UFactory arm, AgileX piper, also options</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>Look up potential used options and also provide recommendations on certain platforms we could watch out for as well as keywords. Take some liberty in finding something that will help us get mobile 6DOF robotics in the lab</agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

• Related: Let's also keep an eye out for 6DOF arms and mobile bases byu-vcl#55