Dobot MG400 vs myCobot 280 M5Stack: Two Budget Arms for Learning and Light Tasks

The MG400 has four degrees of freedom and is a SCARA-type arm with a base of just 190 × 190 mm and a reach of 440 mm. Its payload is 0.75 kg. The myCobot 280 has six degrees of freedom but a payload of only 0.25 kg, one third as much; the maker advertises it as the smallest six-axis arm in the world. Six axes give full freedom to orient the gripper in space; four give movement horizontally and vertically with rotation about one axis, which suffices for moving parts from one plane to another (see “Degrees of Freedom (DOF) in Humanoid Robots”). More axes do not mean more strength here, but more freedom of movement on lighter tasks.

The second difference is the electronics. The myCobot 280 runs on an M5Stack module based on an ESP32 processor and supports programming in Python, C++, Arduino, C# and JavaScript, which makes it an open hobbyist platform. The MG400 is closer to light industry: it comes as a starter kit with a vacuum gripper and a one-year warranty. With a 250 g payload, production use is practically ruled out — this is demonstration and learning equipment; the weight of the gripper eats a large share of the load budget, worth remembering when reading “How to Read a Robot Datasheet”. The higher educational tier in these makers' ranges is occupied by the Dobot Magician and the myCobot 320; an industrial cobot such as the UR3e is an entirely different order of cost, as “What Is a Cobot and How Does It Differ from an Industrial Robot” explains.

Price is the main difference. The myCobot 280 costs „only 599 USD” according to the manufacturer's page, which at the National Bank of Poland rate from the 1 October 2026 (3.8762 zloty to the dollar) is about 2,322 zloty. The seller does not convert this to zloty, so the real cost in Poland, with shipping and possible duty, will be higher. The MG400 is dearer and spread across markets: the US reseller RobotLAB offers a starter kit for 2,890 USD, a European distributor gives 5,649 EUR, or about 24,700 zloty. On Poland's Allegro an offer for the arm at 12,565 zloty was recorded.

Availability varies. Elephant Robotics names no official Polish distributor; the arm is available from European electronics retailers. Polish shops such as Botland carry M5Stack products, but whether they have this particular arm must be checked. Dobot has more points in Poland: the brand is in the range of Dobot Polska, GM Automatyka, Edutech Expert and Botland.store, though not every one of them need stock the MG400.

In a school and at a university both arms will serve as programming-learning equipment, but each differently. The myCobot 280 is a cheaper entry for classes in Python, ROS and microcontrollers; several arms for a group cost about as much as one MG400. The MG400 better reflects an industrial workstation — repeatable pick and place, a gripper set, a base to bolt to the table — so it helps where students should see what small cell automation looks like.

In a laboratory and a project workshop, the MG400 will be better for experiments with arranging light parts, the myCobot for prototyping interfaces and control, for instance with a camera or artificial intelligence. Neither should be mistaken for a production cobot: at 250 or 750 g of payload these are educational models, and how to begin is covered in “How to Start Learning Robotics in Poland”. A full overview of the category is in educational robots, and equipment selection for institutions is discussed in “Educational Robots for Schools and Universities”. If you are interested in cheap arms in a more mechatronic form, take a look at the range of igus, which includes inexpensive ReBeL arms.