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SOMA Robotics

Manufacturer
Software/Algorithm

Philadelphia Penn GRASP spinout selling bimanual robot platforms (mobile and desktop) with VR teleoperation and HDF5 data-collection software for labs.

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Company Overview

SOMA Robotics is a Philadelphia robotics startup that builds research-grade bimanual (dual-arm) robot platforms for embodied-AI and robot-learning research. The company states that it was founded at the University of Pennsylvania's GRASP Laboratory and is based at Pennovation, Penn's innovation campus in Philadelphia. It is a different entity from the Houston-based security-robot company that uses the somarobotics.com domain.

The product line launched on 22 September 2026 and consists of two hardware platforms built on the same dual-arm hardware. The soma one is a mobile manipulator: two six-axis arms (12 degrees of freedom in total) with grippers, mounted on a three-wheel omnidirectional base with an electric lift column. The arm assembly can be detached from the base for bench experiments. Published specifications include 1.5 kg maximum payload per arm, 620 mm reach per arm, 30 kg base payload capacity, 500 Hz control frequency, and ±0.1 mm rated repeatability. The Data and Research configurations add two wrist depth cameras and one scene depth camera. The battery bay is sized for an Anker SOLIX C1000 power station, which is not included. The soma one desktop uses the same arms, grippers, cameras and control stack on a fixed tabletop base.

Both platforms ship with preconfigured onboard compute, Ethernet and USB interfaces, an API and an MCP (Model Context Protocol) interface. The software layer, soda OS, covers VR teleoperation, trajectory recording to HDF5 with MP4 video, cloud deployment of trained policies, and DAgger-style fine-tuning. An SDK exposes joint position, impedance and torque control modes at 500 Hz together with real-time state streaming. The company describes its goal as taking a lab "from unboxing to baselines in one day" with systems that are reproducible across labs.

At launch, US prices were USD 11,999 (Base), 13,999 early-bird or 14,999 standard (Data) and 16,999 (Research) for the soma one, and USD 8,999 (Base), 10,999 early-bird (Data) and 13,499 (Research) for the soma one desktop. The company notes that these configurations fall under the USD 15,000 US federal micro-purchase threshold and offers academic group pricing. Build-to-order lead time is four to six weeks, with the first batch of mobile units shipping in fall 2026. Prices include duties and continental-US shipping; international orders are not yet accepted. First-year updates and support are included, with renewal at 10-12% per year.

The company exhibited with a live demonstration at IROS 2026 (booth 941).

Capabilities & Activities

Primary type & automation activities this supplier delivers:

Applications & Industries

Product Categories

Products & Solutions

soma one

Mobile dual-arm research robot with omnidirectional base, lift column and detachable arm assembly.

soma one desktop

Tabletop dual-arm research robot sharing soma one arms, grippers, cameras and software on a fixed base.

soda OS

Robot software for VR teleoperation, HDF5/MP4 data recording, policy deployment and DAgger fine-tuning.

Partnership & Notable clients

Associating Events

Listed in RobotToday Supplier Discovery. Verified Profile

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Contact SOMA Robotics

WEBSITE

https://somarobotics.ai/

EMAIL

[email protected]

HEADQUARTERS

Pennovation
Philadelphia , Pennsylvania  19146

United States

Company Facts

Founded

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Primary Role

Manufacturer

Company Size

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Primary Region

North America

Annual Sales

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Funding Stage

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Funding Total

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