Low-Cost Teleoperation Extension for Mobile Manipulators
This work provides a more accessible and affordable teleoperation solution for researchers and practitioners working with mobile manipulators, particularly those with limited budgets.
This paper addresses the high cost of teleoperating mobile bimanual manipulators by introducing an open-source framework that uses commodity hardware. It combines smartphone-based head tracking, leader arms for manipulation, and foot pedals for navigation, demonstrating improved task performance and reduced cognitive load in user studies compared to keyboard control.
Teleoperation of mobile bimanual manipulators requires simultaneous control of high-dimensional systems, often necessitating expensive specialized equipment. We present an open-source teleoperation framework that enables intuitive whole body control using readily available commodity hardware. Our system combines smartphone-based head tracking for camera control, leader arms for bilateral manipulation, and foot pedals for hands-free base navigation. Using a standard smartphone with IMU and display, we eliminate the need for costly VR helmets while maintaining immersive visual feedback. The modular architecture integrates seamlessly with the XLeRobot framework, but can be easily adapted to other types of mobile manipulators. We validate our approach through user studies that demonstrate improved task performance and reduced cognitive load compared to keyboard-based control.