Dear Jay,

First project a Robotic Arm, Dont you think its too big and complicated project. I appreciate your idea and dont want to criticise it but In my opinion this project is not as easy as it appears. You need to use closed loop control for actuators like servo motors etc. There is a lot of mathematic involved in positioning the robo arm. I believe it is too complicated project for a newbie.

If you are really intrested in developing pick and place robot. I would suggest you to use Cartesian configuration robot rather than jointed arm or articulated arm robot. And leave the idea of using fingers etc. Use some electromagnet or simple jaw for holding the objects. This will simplify the job by huge margin.

Regards,
Prahlad Purohit