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

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

Robotics 2026-03-24 v2

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

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.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.09051,
  title  = {Cutting the Cord: System Architecture for Low-Cost, GPU-Accelerated Bimanual Mobile Manipulation},
  author = {Artemis Shaw and Chen Liu and Justin Costa and Rane Gray and Alina Skowronek and Kevin Diaz and Nam Bui and Nikolaus Correll},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.09051},
  year   = {2026}
}

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

Abstract

Cite

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