aiqbench analysis
PhoneBot represents a significant step toward democratizing humanoid robotics by leveraging commodity smartphones for perception and control, directly addressing the high cost barrier in research and education. The platform demonstrates that complex capabilities like vision-based following and telepresence can be achieved using off-the-shelf consumer hardware with open-source software architectures. This approach lowers the entry threshold for developing embodied AI systems without relying on proprietary or expensive specialized sensors.
PhoneBot: A Low-Cost Open Humanoid Robot Platform Reusing Smartphones
arXiv:2610.08737v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The adoption of humanoid robots in education and research remains limited by high hardware costs, complex sensing systems, and substantial computational requirements. This paper presents PhoneBot, a low-cost, open-source humanoid robot platform that repurposes commodity smartphones as its primary sensing and computing unit. By using a smartphone's integrated inertial measurement unit (IMU), camera, wireless connectivity, and onboard processing capabilities, PhoneBot reduces hardware costs and simplifies the system architecture. The robot combines a modular lower-body structure driven by 13 low-cost actuators with a torso-mounted smartphone that supports perception, control computation, and user interaction. We describe the mechanical design, software architecture, and real-time communication framework that support stable locomotion and capabilities including vision-based human following, conversational interaction, filming, and mobile telepresence. Experimental evaluations demonstrate reliable walking, perception-driven interaction, and straightforward deployment using off-the-shelf consumer smartphones. With fully open-source hardware and software designs, PhoneBot provides an affordable, reproducible platform for education, research, and rapid prototyping. More details are available at https://phonebot.dev.
Abstract:The adoption of humanoid robots in education and research remains limited by high hardware costs, complex sensing systems, and substantial computational requirements. This paper presents PhoneBot, a low-cost, open-source humanoid robot platform that repurposes commodity smartphones as its primary sensing and computing unit. By using a smartphone's integrated inertial measurement unit (IMU), camera, wireless connectivity, and onboard processing capabilities, PhoneBot reduces hardware costs and simplifies the system architecture. The robot combines a modular lower-body structure driven by 13 low-cost actuators with a torso-mounted smartphone that supports perception, control computation, and user interaction. We describe the mechanical design, software architecture, and real-time communication framework that support stable locomotion and capabilities including vision-based human following, conversational interaction, filming, and mobile telepresence. Experimental evaluations demonstrate reliable walking, perception-driven interaction, and straightforward deployment using off-the-shelf consumer smartphones. With fully open-source hardware and software designs, PhoneBot provides an affordable, reproducible platform for education, research, and rapid prototyping. More details are available at this https URL.
Robotics (cs.RO)
arXiv:2610.08737 [cs.RO]
(or arXiv:2610.08737v1 [cs.RO] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.08737 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
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