How much do robots cost?
Prepare to cash out a couple hundred bucks in parts and tools for your first robot, a lot more if it’s your first project in general. The biggest expense in building a robot is your time. If it takes you 5 hours to track down parts for your robot, you just spent at least $100 of your time. It doesn’t make sense to save on materials by building your own hinges if it takes you an hour to do it. Order it, and use your time for the stuff you can’t buy, like designing or programming your robot. Also you can get free samples of almost any component just by requesting. Not sure if that custom serial port is going to fit correctly? Try to get a sample before you cash out $10. I found that anything that the regular consumer will have no use for, like an 8bit data register or 99.9% pure glycerin, is available as a sample somewhere. The resourceful student can build an obstacle avoidance robot for under $100, but most people will spend much more.
