AhaRobot: A Low-Cost Open-Source Bimanual Mobile Manipulator for Embodied AI

Haiqin Cui1,*, Yifu Yuan1,*, Yan Zheng1, Jianye Hao1,†,
1Tianjin University, *Equal Contributions, †Corresponding Author
Paper arXiv ROS Code Firmware Code CAD Files Assembly Guide Buy AhaRobot Dataset

Abstract

Navigation and manipulation in open-world environments remain unsolved challenges in the Embodied AI. The high cost of commercial mobile manipulation robots significantly limits research in real-world scenes. To address this issue, we propose AhaRobot, a low-cost and fully open-source dual-arm mobile manipulation robot system with a hardware cost of only $1,000 (excluding optional computational resources), which is less than 1/15 of the cost of popular mobile robots. The AhaRobot system consists of three components: (1) a novel low-cost hardware architecture primarily composed of off-the-shelf components, (2) an optimized control solution to enhance operational precision integrating dual-motor backlash control and static friction compensation, and (3) a simple remote teleoperation method RoboPilot. We use handles to control the dual arms and pedals for whole-body movement. The teleoperation process is low-burden and easy to operate, much like piloting. RoboPilot is designed for remote data collection in embodied scenarios. Experimental results demonstrate that RoboPilot significantly enhances data collection efficiency in complex manipulation tasks, achieving a 30% increase compared to methods using 3D mouse and leader-follower systems. It also excels at completing extremely long-horizon tasks in one go. Furthermore, AhaRobot can be used to learn end-to-end policies and autonomously perform complex manipulation tasks, such as pen insertion and cleaning up the floor. We aim to build an affordable yet powerful platform to promote the development of embodied tasks on real devices, advancing more robust and reliable embodied AI.

Highlights

AhaRobot leads a new direction in robotics research with its breakthrough low-cost design. With just $1,000-2,000 in hardware costs, it achieves flexible autonomous control capabilities, which is only 1/15 of the cost of mainstream commercial solutions. This highly cost-effective design not only enables more researchers to participate in embodied AI research but also lays the foundation for the popularization of future home service robots.

As shown in the figure, AhaRobot consists of three core components: (1) Low-Cost Hardware: primarily composed of off-the-shelf components, including dual-arm system, mobile base, vision system, and computing unit, with a total cost of only $1,000-2,000; (2) Dual-Joint Control Method: an optimized control solution that integrates dual-motor backlash control and static friction compensation to significantly enhance operational precision; (3) RoboPilot Teleoperation: a simple remote teleoperation method using handles to control the dual arms and pedals for whole-body movement, making it low-burden and easy to operate, much like piloting.

Hardware overview of AhaRobot

Overview of AhaRobot

Comparison of Different Robotic Platform

Robot Platform Cost Dual Arm Mobile Base Reach Floor Hardware Open-Source DoF
Mobile Aloha [9] $32,000 ✓ ✓ ✗ ✓ 16
Hello Robot [19] $24,950 ✗ ✓ ✓ ✗ 7
DROID [20] ≈ $27,000 ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ 8
AgileX COBOT ≈ $30,000 ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗ 16
TIAGo > $200,000 ✗ ✓ ✗ ✗ 11
AhaRobot $1,000-2,000 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 16

The price of $1000 does not include computing resources, while $2000 version is for the Mini-ITX computer with an RTX4060 GPU.

Hardware Design

Hardware Design of AhaRobot

We put the arm horizontally to counter gravity, provide lifting ability, and reduce the cost

Core Parameters of AhaRobot

Category Value
Payload (Single Arm) 1.5 kg
Weight 51 kg
Size 550×500×1550 mm
Max Gripper Width 120 mm
Max Reach (X-Y Plane) 750 mm
Z-Axis Reach 1250 mm
Battery Life 4-5 hr
Min Turning Radius 0
Turning Sweeping Radius 500 mm

Cost Breakdown

Core Components Price List

Component Unit Price ($) Quantity Total Price ($)
Hardware
Feetech STS3215 Servo 15.3 26 397.2
ESP32 Controller for Feetech Servo 11.1 3 33.3
Sukai Synchronous Belt Slide, 57120 Stepper Motor 88.9 2 177.8
139 BLDC Motor 30.6 2 61.2
1080P USB Camera 16.8 2 33.6
Logitech C920 Pro USB Camera 69.4 1 69.4
Li-Poly Battery 24V 20000mAh w/ 3A Charger 53.6 1 53.6
Subtotal (Hardware Only) 826.1
Compute Resource (Optional)
Jackery 600 Plus 220V 800W Battery 291.5 1 291.5
Mini ITX Computer with RTX 4060 833.2 1 833.2
Total (Including Compute Resources) 1950.8

See our tutorial for the complete price list and purchase links.

Control System

Control System of AhaRobot

We introduce Dual-Joint Control System to further enhance robot control precision

Experimental results demonstrate that our design can achieve more stable tracking of various waveforms

Robopilot Teleoperation

RoboPilot Teleoperation Workstation

Web-Based Teleopration Workstation anyone can easily set up at a dinner table

Teleoperated Long-Horizon Tasks

Delivering the Coffee (Long Task)

Picking and Heating the Sushi (Long Task)

Autonomous Tasks

Pick up the Box (50 Demos)

Collect the Toys (80 Demos)

Insert the Pen (50 Demos)

RoboPilot Teleoperation

Hand-to-Hand Retargeting

Web-based Interface

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Wei Jing, Xiao Zhu and Haitao Wang for their insightful discussions on robot design, as well as Ruitao Wang, Yuxiao Li, and Siyu Wang for their support in video recording.

BibTeX

@misc{cui2025aharobotlowcostopensourcebimanual,
  title={AhaRobot: A Low-Cost Open-Source Bimanual Mobile Manipulator for Embodied AI}, 
  author={Haiqin Cui and Yifu Yuan and Yan Zheng and Jianye Hao},
  year={2025},
  eprint={2503.10070},
  archivePrefix={arXiv},
  primaryClass={cs.RO},
  url={https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.10070}, 
}