Hi HN — I’m Charles from Vassar Robotics (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vassarrobotics.com&#x2F;">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vassarrobotics.com&#x2F;</a> - not much there but you can order the robot at <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shop.vassarrobotics.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;navrim-robot-that-learns-skills-in-30-minutes">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shop.vassarrobotics.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;navrim-robot-that-l...</a>)Edit: the entire run sold out thanks to HN today—thank you all! And sorry to anyone who missed out. You can get in on the next batch here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vassarrobotics.com&#x2F;newsletter">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vassarrobotics.com&#x2F;newsletter</a>.We are bringing an upgraded version of the long beloved SO-101 robot arms to a $219 price point with improved mechanical design and added intelligence. See what it can do here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtube.com&#x2F;shorts&#x2F;xNyPKJZI400" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtube.com&#x2F;shorts&#x2F;xNyPKJZI400</a> (demos are sped up as shown in the video)I’ve spent a few years building RC planes (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cyo.ng&#x2F;hangar&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;cyo.ng&#x2F;hangar&#x2F;</a>) and micro gas turbines (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;set.mit.edu" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;set.mit.edu</a>), and I’ve always wished hardware were cheaper so more people could experiment.I’m now launching a $219 desktop robot-arm kit that keeps LeRobot SO-101’s kinematics, swaps key parts for sturdier, more precise SLA prints, and adds two integrated 480 p cameras. After plenty of supplier haggling, the whole kit costs less than the twelve servos alone. I’ll release the updated mechanical design under an MIT license by June 30.On the software side, I&#x27;ll also release an MIT-licensed MCP server by June 30 that exposes the local robot policy as tools for agentic LLMs (Opus 4, o3, etc.) to use in long-horizon tasks. Here&#x27;s how it works: You can teach the robot new skills through teleoperation. During inference, you simply talk to the agentic LLM using natural language instructions. The LLM then calls the local robot policy through MCP, automatically decomposing your high-level requests into executable robot commands.Thanks to the LeRobot community for making such an amazing robot accessible. If you’ve contributed to the LeRobot GitHub repo, email hello@vassarrobotics.com for a 20% discount coupon as a small thank-you.I’d love your feedback! Beyond manufacturing, cleaning up the codebase, and writing docs, I’m considering: a force-controlled gripper, a parallel-jaw gripper, an extra wrist DOF (matching the new Trossen and ARX arms), full force feedback on the leader arm (though that may triple the price), a more affordable version with lower resolution each joint, and a longer-reach variant. Which of these—or something else—would be most useful to you?You can order it here if you want: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shop.vassarrobotics.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;navrim-robot-that-learns-skills-in-30-minutes">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;shop.vassarrobotics.com&#x2F;products&#x2F;navrim-robot-that-l...</a>. (Edit: sold out! You can get in on the next batch here: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vassarrobotics.com&#x2F;newsletter">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vassarrobotics.com&#x2F;newsletter</a>. I hope we can have your business in the future.)Looking forward to any and all comments!---Edit: A quick explanation regarding shipping times (as stated on our shop page):• The first batch of 20 units, which will be shipped by June 30, is sold out.• The second batch of 100 units will be shipped by July 15 (unassembled kits) and July 21 (assembled units). The order limit is to ensure we can ship on time and maintain high quality.For those who have already placed orders: I will reach out individually to ask if you would like to receive weekly progress updates from now until the shipping date.

Launch HN: Vassar Robotics (YC X25) – $219 robot arm that learns new skills

I made this 130 mile capable VTOL drone in only 90 days. It can fly for 3 hours on a single charge. That would make it one of the longest range and endurance 3D printed VTOLs in the world.This is the thing I&#x27;m most proud of building to date!Before this project, I was a total CAD, 3D printing and aerodynamic modeling beginner. I had only built and flown one VTOL before.SPECSWingspan: 3.9 ft (1200 mm)
Length: 2.5 ft (770 mm)
Weight: 5.6 lb (2.55kg)Airframe: foaming PLA (Bambu PLA-Aero) and PETG structural parts printed on A1 printer, CFRP booms and sparsBattery: Li-ion silicon anode Amprius SA08 cells, 6s2p pack by Upgrade Energy
Motors: 2807 AOS for lift and cruise (unoptimized)
Lifting ESCs: 4 in 1 Holybro Tekko32 F4 45A 
Cruise ESC: Flycolor Raptor 5 45A
Lifting and cruise props: 7042 Gemfan (unoptimized)Flight controller: Speedybee F405 Wing
GPS: M10Firmware: Ardupilot 4.6.0---This video edit ended up shorter than I planned. Being my first Youtube video with significant post production effort, I underestimated the work required to make a longer in-depth video with voiceover, edited footage, etc.

Show HN: I made a 3D printed VTOL drone

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We wanted to build a course for new Mastra devs to get started quickly. However, we knew videos would go out of date and be more difficult to maintain.We decided to launch our &quot;course&quot; as an MCP server. This way your coding agent actually teaches the course content to you and can help you write the code. We think this is a really interactive way to learn.Using an editor with MCP support (such as Cursor, Windsurf, or VSCode), your code agent will call the appropriate MCP tools which will return context for the agent. This context tries to instruct the agent that it should be teaching you the content, not just doing the work for you.The course is still pretty experimental and some models work better than others. Code is available in the Mastra Github repo in the mcp-docs-server package (<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mastra-ai&#x2F;mastra&#x2F;tree&#x2F;main&#x2F;packages&#x2F;mcp-docs-server">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;mastra-ai&#x2F;mastra&#x2F;tree&#x2F;main&#x2F;packages&#x2F;mcp-d...</a>)

Show HN: A “Course” as an MCP Server

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Hi HN,In the past ~8 months, I have been working on a side project that helps me plan my travels. While most months saw no or little progress, in the past ~3 months I have been adding tons of features to support my next big trip later this year.I&#x27;ve written in my blog on the feature set [1] but in short they are:- Timetable view of activities, accommodations, and day plans- List view and map view of them- Commenting on them- Expense tracker- Sharing and collaboration with friendsThe source code is also available on GitHub [2]This is an example of a view-only trip: [3]So far, I think I&#x27;m satisfied with the features and is progressing really well in my travel planning.Let me know what you think! Thanks![1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.kenrick95.org&#x2F;2025&#x2F;06&#x2F;ikuyo-plan-your-next-trip&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.kenrick95.org&#x2F;2025&#x2F;06&#x2F;ikuyo-plan-your-next-trip...</a>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;kenrick95&#x2F;ikuyo">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;kenrick95&#x2F;ikuyo</a>[3] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ikuyo.kenrick95.org&#x2F;trip&#x2F;2617cd98-a229-45d4-9617-5265d52317cd&#x2F;home" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;ikuyo.kenrick95.org&#x2F;trip&#x2F;2617cd98-a229-45d4-9617-526...</a>