Open hardware
Thenar Arms
A robot arm pair you can print: a passive leader and an MG996R follower.
github.com/nickthelegend/thenar-arms →We build
physical AI
Robots you can print, the rigs that drive them, and a market that pays people in USDG on Arbitrum for every run they record.
Built with
ArbitrumStylusPaxos USDGPrivyMeraOpenZeppelinx402WebXRMuJoCoArbitrumStylusPaxos USDGPrivyMeraOpenZeppelinx402WebXRMuJoCo
Robots learn from people.
Physical AI is starved of real demonstrations.
ThenarLabs builds the robots, the rigs that drive them, and the market that pays the people who teach them.
What we build
From the arm on your desk to the humanoid
Shipped
Hotaru
An animated desk lamp that sees, hears and moves.
github.com/nickthelegend/hotaru →
Building
JX1
A full-size walking humanoid designed to be built in India.
github.com/nickthelegend/thenar-jx1 →
Building
Thenar Duck
A 14-servo duck robot, printed on a P1S in four colours.
github.com/nickthelegend/thenar-duck →
Open hardware
GT240
A printable 240 mm Formula-style simulator wheel, engraved ThenarLabs.
github.com/nickthelegend/racingwheel →
Live
Thenar
People teach robots, and get paid in dollars on Arbitrum for every run they record.
github.com/nickthelegend/thenar-arbitrum →How Thenar works
A run is recorded, verified and paid in one block
01
Drive
Take a task and do it with a robot arm: from the browser, a Meta Quest 3S on your own table, or a leader arm in your hand.
02
Get paid
A verifier measures the run, your passkey signs it and a Stylus contract replays its physics. One Arbitrum transaction records it and pays you in USDG.
03
Train
Every paid run issues your share of the corpus. Labs and AI agents buy it per task, and every sale is logged with its hash.
3
funded tasks on Arbitrum Sepolia
25
paid runs still open to anyone
25.00 USDG
in escrow, paid out per run
Questions
What is ThenarLabs?
A physical AI lab. We design robots anyone can print and build, the teleoperation rigs that drive them, and Thenar, the market where the people who teach robots are paid for it.
Do I need a robot to earn on Thenar?
No. Every task runs on a simulated arm at true scale in the browser or in a Meta Quest. A physical SO-101 leader or follower is optional: it drives the same recording.
How are operators paid?
In USDG on Arbitrum, by the same transaction that records the run, from escrow the task's funder put up front. A relayer pays the gas, so nobody needs ETH to earn.
What stops fake runs?
A paid run needs a person behind the address: a passkey checked on chain through Arbitrum's P-256 precompile. A Stylus contract also replays the recording and refuses a run whose arm never really carried the object.
Who buys the data?
Robotics labs and AI agents. An agent asks for a task's corpus over HTTP, pays 1 USDG through x402, and checks the file against the sale logged on Arbitrum. The money goes straight to the people who recorded it.
Is the hardware open source?
Yes. Thenar Arms, JX1, JX0 and the Thenar Duck publish their CAD, print files, parts lists and firmware on GitHub. None of it is payload rated yet, and each repository says what has and has not been proven on a bench.
Teach a robot today
Pick a funded task, drive the arm, and be paid in USDG on Arbitrum before the page finishes telling you so.