YOR: Your Own Mobile Manipulator for Generalizable Robotics

TL;DR

YOR presents an open-source, cost-efficient mobile manipulator that combines an omnidirectional base, a telescopic lift, and dual compliant arms to enable whole-body manipulation at under $10{,}000. By integrating a swerve-base, a capable vertical lift, and two PiPER arms with compliant control, YOR supports both teleoperation and autonomous manipulation, and it is paired with a visual-inertial SLAM and voxel-based mapping stack for robust indoor navigation. The paper demonstrates YOR’s capabilities through whole-body teleoperation, an imitation-learning policy for bimanual tasks, and SLAM-based navigation with dynamic obstacle avoidance, highlighting practical performance metrics such as loop-closure accuracy around 12 mm, end-effector stability within about 16 mm during base motion, and replanning within ~1 s in dynamic scenarios. Collectively, YOR offers a scalable, low-cost platform that enables broad mobile manipulation research, with an open-source hardware/software package to accelerate community collaboration and rapid iteration in home-like environments.

Abstract

Recent advances in robot learning have generated significant interest in capable platforms that may eventually approach human-level competence. This interest, combined with the commoditization of actuators, has propelled growth in low-cost robotic platforms. However, the optimal form factor for mobile manipulation, especially on a budget, remains an open question. We introduce YOR, an open-source, low-cost mobile manipulator that integrates an omnidirectional base, a telescopic vertical lift, and two arms with grippers to achieve whole-body mobility and manipulation. Our design emphasizes modularity, ease of assembly using off-the-shelf components, and affordability, with a bill-of-materials cost under 10,000 USD. We demonstrate YOR's capability by completing tasks that require coordinated whole-body control, bimanual manipulation, and autonomous navigation. Overall, YOR offers competitive functionality for mobile manipulation research at a fraction of the cost of existing platforms. Project website: https://www.yourownrobot.ai/

Figures (11)

• Figure 1: YOR is an open-source mobile manipulator combining an omnidirectional base, a lift, and two arms. YOR provides the dexterity and reach necessary for real-world tasks without the complexity of legged systems and the high cost of mobile manipulators on the market.
• Figure 2: Comparison of different mobile manipulators with YOR: Tidybot++ wu2024tidybot++ relies on a single arm with no vertical control. XLeRobot wang2025xlerobot is impressively low cost but its payload and reach limits its use cases. Due to its large footprint and non-holonomic base, Mobile ALOHA fu2024mobilealoha has limited navigation capability. RBY1-A rainbow2024rby1 and similar options on the market have many similar features to YOR but come with almost an order of magnitude higher price tag.
• Figure 3: YOR is designed using off-the-shelf components in a modular configuration, with a total bill-of-materials cost of US$9,250, the majority coming from the robot arms.
• Figure 4: Internal layout of the mobile base following a "heavy base" philosophy. High-density components (battery, compute, and power distribution) are mounted centrally at the lowest elevation to lower the center of mass, flanked by four corner-mounted swerve modules.
• Figure 5: A teleoperated YOR completes daily tasks in home environments with its extended workspace and bimanual arms. In these tasks, we teleoperate YOR to open a dishwasher and use its mobile base to load and close it. YOR can also use the lift to lower its height and water plants or pick up a basket from the ground.