This paper presents the process followed in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana in Medellin, Colombia to implement a laboratory for the study of robot manipulators. The lab includes the following components: an industrial serial manipulator and the software developed for its integration to a graduate course, a parallel manipulator, a Cartesian robot, an inverted pendulum and a small serial manipulator. Except for the industrial robot, all the other devices were manufactured at the University. For all prototypes, specific software to control them has been developed.