Hugging Face, the AI developer platform company, has introduced the SO-101, a new programmable robotic arm, Tech Crunch reported. This 3D-printable device, starting at $100, is designed to perform basic tasks such as picking up and placing objects.

The SO-101 is an upgrade from its predecessor, the SO-100, released in October last year. Hugging Face’s robotics division, LeRobot, collaborated with The Robot Studio, WowRobo, Seeed Studio, and PartaBot to develop this improved version.

Super excited to introduce SO-101 today from @huggingface, in collaboration with @therobotstudio, Wowrobo, Seeedstudio & Partabot.

Building on top of the insanely successful SO-100 (the most popular robot arms ever?), SO-101 are the first robot arms any AI builder should buy.… pic.twitter.com/Y3IHskmiGb

— clem 🤗 (@ClementDelangue) April 28, 2025

According to Hugging Face, the SO-101 features enhanced motors that reduce friction and allow the arm to support its own weight. The camera-equipped arm can be trained using reinforcement learning, an AI technique allowing it to “learn” tasks like manipulating Lego blocks.

While the base price is $100, fully assembled units and U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports can push the cost up to around $500, depending on the supplier.

This release comes as part of Hugging Face’s expanding robotics efforts.

The company recently acquired Pollen Robotics, a French startup, and plans to sell Pollen’s humanoid robot, Reachy 2. Under the leadership of former Tesla Optimus engineer Remi Cadene, Hugging Face’s robotics division aims to allow developers to download and suggest improvements to Reachy 2’s code.

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