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Cutting the Cord: System Architecture for Low-Cost, GPU-Accelerated Bimanual Mobile Manipulation

Artemis Shaw, Chen Liu, Justin Costa, Rane Gray, Alina Skowronek, Kevin Diaz, Nam Bui, Nikolaus Correll

TL;DR

A bimanual mobile manipulator built on the open-source XLeRobot with integrated onboard compute for less than \$1300, providing a low-cost alternative for research and education in robotics and robot learning.

Abstract

We present a bimanual mobile manipulator built on the open-source XLeRobot with integrated onboard compute for less than \$1300. Key contributions include: (1) optimized mechanical design maximizing stiffness-to-weight ratio, (2) a Tri-Bus power topology isolating compute from motor-induced voltage transients, and (3) embedded autonomy using NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano for untethered operation. The platform enables teleoperation, autonomous SLAM navigation, and vision-based manipulation without external dependencies, providing a low-cost alternative for research and education in robotics and robot learning.

Cutting the Cord: System Architecture for Low-Cost, GPU-Accelerated Bimanual Mobile Manipulation

TL;DR

A bimanual mobile manipulator built on the open-source XLeRobot with integrated onboard compute for less than \$1300, providing a low-cost alternative for research and education in robotics and robot learning.

Abstract

We present a bimanual mobile manipulator built on the open-source XLeRobot with integrated onboard compute for less than \$1300. Key contributions include: (1) optimized mechanical design maximizing stiffness-to-weight ratio, (2) a Tri-Bus power topology isolating compute from motor-induced voltage transients, and (3) embedded autonomy using NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano for untethered operation. The platform enables teleoperation, autonomous SLAM navigation, and vision-based manipulation without external dependencies, providing a low-cost alternative for research and education in robotics and robot learning.
Paper Structure (17 sections, 4 equations, 9 figures, 5 tables)

This paper contains 17 sections, 4 equations, 9 figures, 5 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Materials and Methods
  4. Structural Design and Fabrications
  5. Power Distribution and Tri-Bus Topology
  6. SOFTWARE & CONTROL ARCHITECTURE
  7. Task-based inverse kinematics and manipulation
  8. Mobile Navigation (SLAM & Nav2)
  9. VR Teleoperation Architecture
  10. Experimental Evaluation
  11. Structural Rigidity and Load Capacity Analysis
  12. Grasp Reliability Validation
  13. Computational Benchmarking
  14. System Stress Tests
  15. Teleoperation Dexterity
  16. ...and 2 more sections

Figures (9)

  • Figure 1: The evolved XLeRobot platform a low-cost bimanual platform for education and research assisting an industrial robot by removing screws from an electric vehicle battery.
  • Figure 2: Diverse Bimanual Manipulation Tasks. Demonstrations include pencil insertion into an electric pencil sharpener, picking up a YCB drill calli2017yale, bimanual container opening, toaster use, screw removal from car-battery disassembly, whiteboard wiping, peg-in-hole insertion, coffee filter removal, block organization, and drawer opening.
  • Figure 3: Structural composition and kinematics: (left) Robotic arm with 4-wall (black)/2-wall topology (cyan), and (right) cantilever experimental setup.
  • Figure 4: Power System Architecture. (a) The logical power schematic illustrates the distribution from the Anker SOLIX C300 to the distinct motor buses and the NVIDIA Jetson controller via high-output USB-C and car outlet interfaces. (b) The hardware integration diagram shows the physical routing of power lines within the mobile manipulator chassis, supporting the Intel RealSense D435 and dual arm configurations.
  • Figure 5: Perception-driven manipulation pipeline. (a) Color-based segmentation and centroid detection in the camera optical frame. (b) 3D mapping and representation of the environment. (c) Final grasp execution of the target object following inverse kinematics planning.
  • ...and 4 more figures