mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

GELLO: A General, Low-Cost, and Intuitive Teleoperation Framework for Robot Manipulators

arXiv 2309.13037 ↗First posted 22 Sep 2023cs.ROcited by 189

On the map: Offline RL and imitation learning from data → Robot manipulation imitation learning

Abstract (arXiv)

Humans can teleoperate robots to accomplish complex manipulation tasks. Imitation learning has emerged as a powerful framework that leverages human teleoperated demonstrations to teach robots new skills. However, the performance of the learned policies is bottlenecked by the quality, scale, and variety of the demonstration data. In this paper, we aim to lower the barrier to collecting large and high-quality human demonstration data by proposing a GEneraL framework for building LOw-cost and intuitive teleoperation systems for robotic manipulation (GELLO). Given a target robot arm, we build a GELLO controller device that has the same kinematic structure as the target arm, leveraging 3D-printed parts and economical off-the-shelf motors. GELLO is easy to build and intuitive to use. Through an extensive user study, we show that GELLO enables more reliable and efficient demonstration collection compared to other cost efficient teleoperation devices commonly used in the imitation learning literature such as virtual reality controllers and 3D spacemouses. We further demonstrate the capabilities of GELLO for performing complex bi-manual and contact-rich manipulation tasks. To make GELLO accessible to everyone, we have designed and built GELLO systems for 3 commonly used robotic arms: Franka, UR5, and xArm. All software and hardware are open-sourced and can be found on our website: https://wuphilipp.github.io/gello/.

Key facts. Cited by 189 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Robot manipulation imitation learning, one of 13 directions in Offline RL and imitation learning from data. First posted on arXiv 22 Sep 2023.

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2023: 1; 2024: 36; 2025: 68; 2026: 84.

189 papers.

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  1. 2025GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robotscited by 1,225
  2. 2023Any-point Trajectory Modeling for Policy Learningcited by 215
  3. 2024EgoMimic: Scaling Imitation Learning via Egocentric Videocited by 175
  4. 2024RoboMIND: Benchmark on Multi-embodiment Intelligence Normative Data for Robot Manipulationcited by 175
  5. 2024DexCap: Scalable and Portable Mocap Data Collection System for Dexterous Manipulationcited by 160
  6. 2024Open-TeleVision: Teleoperation with Immersive Active Visual Feedbackcited by 145
  7. 2024Data Scaling Laws in Imitation Learning for Robotic Manipulationcited by 145
  8. 2024DexMimicGen: Automated Data Generation for Bimanual Dexterous Manipulation via Imitation Learningcited by 116
  9. 2025Reactive Diffusion Policy: Slow-Fast Visual-Tactile Policy Learning for Contact-Rich Manipulationcited by 108
  10. 2025Being-H0: Vision-Language-Action Pretraining from Large-Scale Human Videoscited by 102
  11. 2025Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotics: A Review Towards Real-World Applicationscited by 84
  12. 2024Bunny-VisionPro: Real-Time Bimanual Dexterous Teleoperation for Imitation Learningcited by 77
38 more
  1. 2024Learning Visuotactile Skills with Two Multifingered Handscited by 76
  2. 2025HOMIE: Humanoid Loco-Manipulation with Isomorphic Exoskeleton Cockpitcited by 76
  3. 2024SplatSim: Zero-Shot Sim2Real Transfer of RGB Manipulation Policies Using Gaussian Splattingcited by 69
  4. 2025ManipTrans: Efficient Dexterous Bimanual Manipulation Transfer via Residual Learningcited by 66
  5. 2024Real-World Robot Applications of Foundation Models: A Reviewcited by 61
  6. 2024TRANSIC: Sim-to-Real Policy Transfer by Learning from Online Correctioncited by 59
  7. 2025Motion Tracks: A Unified Representation for Human-Robot Transfer in Few-Shot Imitation Learningcited by 59
  8. 2026EgoVerse: An Egocentric Human Dataset for Robot Learning from Around the Worldcited by 57
  9. 2024Bidirectional Decoding: Improving Action Chunking via Guided Test-Time Samplingcited by 52
  10. 2024SkillMimicGen: Automated Demonstration Generation for Efficient Skill Learning and Deploymentcited by 52
  11. 2025Sim-to-Real Reinforcement Learning for Vision-Based Dexterous Manipulation on Humanoidscited by 48
  12. 2024Robot Utility Models: General Policies for Zero-Shot Deployment in New Environmentscited by 44
  13. 2025TWIST2: Scalable, Portable, and Holistic Humanoid Data Collection Systemcited by 44
  14. 2024Hand-Object Interaction Pretraining from Videoscited by 39
  15. 2025DexWild: Dexterous Human Interactions for In-the-Wild Robot Policiescited by 38
  16. 2024ForceMimic: Force-Centric Imitation Learning with Force-Motion Capture System for Contact-Rich Manipulationcited by 36
  17. 2024ACE: A Cross-Platform Visual-Exoskeletons System for Low-Cost Dexterous Teleoperationcited by 34
  18. 2025FACTR: Force-Attending Curriculum Training for Contact-Rich Policy Learningcited by 34
  19. 2025EgoZero: Robot Learning from Smart Glassescited by 33
  20. 2026Rethinking Video Generation Model for the Embodied Worldcited by 33
  21. 2026RoboClaw: An Agentic Framework for Scalable Long-Horizon Robotic Taskscited by 33
  22. 2024ARCap: Collecting High-quality Human Demonstrations for Robot Learning with Augmented Reality Feedbackcited by 31
  23. 2025BEHAVIOR Robot Suite: Streamlining Real-World Whole-Body Manipulation for Everyday Household Activitiescited by 31
  24. 2026LaST0: Latent Spatio-Temporal Chain-of-Thought for Robotic Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 31
  25. 2024TeleMoMa: A Modular and Versatile Teleoperation System for Mobile Manipulationcited by 30
  26. 2025Real-to-Sim Robot Policy Evaluation with Gaussian Splatting Simulation of Soft-Body Interactionscited by 30
  27. 2025X-Sim: Cross-Embodiment Learning via Real-to-Sim-to-Realcited by 28
  28. 2024Bi-ACT: Bilateral Control-Based Imitation Learning via Action Chunking with Transformercited by 27
  29. 2025RoboCopilot: Human-in-the-loop Interactive Imitation Learning for Robot Manipulationcited by 26
  30. 2025ViPRA: Video Prediction for Robot Actionscited by 26
  31. 2024Bimanual Dexterity for Complex Taskscited by 25
  32. 2025Eye, Robot: Learning to Look to Act with a BC-RL Perception-Action Loopcited by 25
  33. 2025Particle-Grid Neural Dynamics for Learning Deformable Object Models from RGB-D Videoscited by 25
  34. 2025MLA: A Multisensory Language-Action Model for Multimodal Understanding and Forecasting in Robotic Manipulationcited by 23
  35. 2024TidyBot++: An Open-Source Holonomic Mobile Manipulator for Robot Learningcited by 22
  36. 2024VoxAct-B: Voxel-Based Acting and Stabilizing Policy for Bimanual Manipulationcited by 21
  37. 2025Dexterous Manipulation through Imitation Learning: A Surveycited by 21
  38. 2026Show-Harness: Just a VLM Agent Can Play Robotscited by 20

50 most cited of 189 All 189 (JSON)

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  1. 2020Learning Multi-Arm Manipulation Through Collaborative Teleoperation
  2. 2022From One Hand to Multiple Hands: Imitation Learning for Dexterous Manipulation from Single-Camera Teleoperation
  3. 2025Echo: An Open-Source, Low-Cost Teleoperation System with Force Feedback for Dataset Collection in Robot Learning
  4. 2025Open TeleDex: A Hardware-Agnostic Teleoperation System for Imitation Learning based Dexterous Manipulation
  5. 2025Hybrid Imitation Learning: Teleoperation Augmentation Primitives that Policies Learn to Trigger
  6. 2018RoboTurk: A Crowdsourcing Platform for Robotic Skill Learning through Imitation
  7. 2024TelePreview: A User-Friendly Teleoperation System with Virtual Arm Assistance for Enhanced Effectiveness ↗
  8. 2025Robotic Manipulation via Imitation Learning: Taxonomy, Evolution, Benchmark, and Challenges