# OpenBot: Turning Smartphones into Robots

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.10631 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.10631/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 24 Aug 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [HomeRobot: Open-Vocabulary Mobile Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.11565/) (2023)
- [Sub-millisecond Video Synchronization of Multiple Android Smartphones](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.00987/) (2021)
- [OpenBot-Fleet: A System for Collective Learning with Real Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.07515/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Current robots are either expensive or make significant compromises on sensory richness, computational power, and communication capabilities. We propose to leverage smartphones to equip robots with extensive sensor suites, powerful computational abilities, state-of-the-art communication channels, and access to a thriving software ecosystem. We design a small electric vehicle that costs 50 and serves as a robot body for standard Android smartphones. We develop a software stack that allows smartphones to use this body for mobile operation and demonstrate that the system is sufficiently powerful to support advanced robotics workloads such as person following and real-time autonomous navigation in unstructured environments. Controlled experiments demonstrate that the presented approach is robust across different smartphones and robot bodies. A video of our work is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc8hFLyWDOM