This is a common question. I have wanted a "good robot arm I can buy" for a long, long time. I would like something with about 16 inches of reach and 6 degrees of freedom. The motion must be smooth with a position resolution of around 0.01 inch.
Alas, in my opinion, such an arm does not exist for the hobbyist. Why? Mainly, I think, leverage sucks (in this case). At 16 inches there is quite a lot of torque required at the base to move the arm (with the mass of the arm plus what it is grasping). And liability may be (probably is with most would-be suppliers) an issue.
I have built a few arms myself with various hobby servos. High torque motors where needed and smaller, light weight ones towards the wrist. * Some * of the motions are smooth and neat. Others are simply jerky. Then there is the problem of backlash.
There is a company (Trossen Robotics, I think) whose arms are ..., well, I don't know what to say. Certainly, it seems, they offer cool motors that are seemingly designed for what we want. But the videos are always disappointing. Maybe its just me.
I assume you want something for a couple of $K. In my opinion, it does not exist. The demand/application is not there to bring the cost down.
And, again, there is the liability issue.
Maybe some day, soon.
(I hope someone responds with something that will work for ya. I would like to see that.)
Yep. "Knee high by the 4th of July." I heard that when I was a kid in Nebraska; Things were good when that was true. Miss that life. It was so quiet some nights. You could hear the corn grow. Don't know for sure about that. But I do know when the equipment shut down in the evening you could hear two people talking clear across a field as clearly as if they were right next to you. I suppose that is still true on a farm.
2 beers (and counting) (classic Budweiser). Figuring out how to write a Python extension. Roasting a couple of hot dogs. And yes, I live in Mississippi.