Great project. Locomotion and vision are pretty advanced compared to grasping and complex handling of objects. If we could have a workable arm, it would be much more interesting in applications.
There are some affordable robot arms. uArm has a hobbyist-level arm. I have one, and I made a 6DOF force sensor out of a 3Dconnexion SpaceNavigator on the end and got it to talk to ROS. I want to hook a classifier system up to it so it can use tools like end wrenches and get them onto a bolt by feel.
Robot manipulation in unstructured situations still sucks, though. Willow Garage was making progress, but didn't last.
Robot manipulation in unstructured situations still sucks, though. Willow Garage was making progress, but didn't last.