Stringman: An $800 Open-Source Room-Scale Gripper Robot

Room-Scale Robotics with Minimal Actuators

Stringman is an open-source, OSHWA-certified robot designed to operate across an entire room. It achieves this by using four motors to control lines anchored in the ceiling corners, from which its gripper hangs. This cable-driven architecture allows it to reach areas that wheeled or legged robots cannot, particularly in cluttered environments.

Cost-Effective and High Payload Capacity

The robot's design focuses on maximizing work area volume per dollar, claiming to offer approximately 500 times the work area volume per dollar compared to desktop arms, while maintaining a comparable 2 kg payload capacity. The lifting force is distributed among all motors, which allows payload capacity to scale with their combined torque, especially near the center of the room where the load is most evenly shared.

Open Source and Local Operation

Stringman's mechanical CAD, PCBs, and control software are all published as open source. It is designed for local operation, running air-gapped on a local Wi-Fi network. The user interface is served locally, and AI models execute on the user's hardware, ensuring no data leaves the local network. It also includes a Python API and MCP server for integration with other robotic workflows.