NYU Researchers Open-Source MABEL, a Full Humanoid Robot for $8,056
MABEL is a 56-DOF open-source mobile bimanual humanoid with $8,056 parts cost from NYU and UofT Two 7-DOF arms, 17-DOF ORCA hands, swerve base, 3-DOF neck, lift and pitching torso reach 2.23 m Apple Vision Pro teleop at 60 Hz with 137 ms glass-to-glass latency over the robot's Wi-Fi Shared command
Takeaways
- MABEL is a 56-DOF open-source mobile bimanual humanoid with $8,056 parts cost from NYU and UofT
- Two 7-DOF arms, 17-DOF ORCA hands, swerve base, 3-DOF neck, lift and pitching torso reach 2.23 m
- Apple Vision Pro teleop at 60 Hz with 137 ms glass-to-glass latency over the robot's Wi-Fi
- Shared command interface lets teleop, MuJoCo, Isaac Lab and learned policies drive one whole-body controller
- Imitation learning demonstrated with ACT, Diffusion Policy, pi-0.5 VLA and WAM, LeRobot-format datasets
- Full CAD, firmware, apps and training code on GitHub under Apache-2.0 and CERN-OHL-S
Researchers at New York University and the University of Toronto have released MABEL , a 56-degree-of-freedom mobile humanoid designed for bimanual manipulation, active perception, and whole-room navigation. The team estimates that builders can source its parts for $8,056, compared with the $70,000 to $150,000 range it cites for commercial mobile manipulators.
The release covers more than the robot’s mechanical design. Its research paper and GitHub repository include CAD files, firmware, a whole-body controller, MuJoCo and Isaac Lab digital twins, an Apple Vision Pro teleoperation app, data-curation tools, and an imitation-learning pipeline that exports datasets in LeRobot format. The software uses the Apache-2.0 license, while the hardware uses CERN-OHL-S.
| Capability | MABEL specification |
|---|---|
| Configuration | 56 DOF across the mobile base, lift, torso, neck, arms, and hands |
| Manipulation | Two 7-DOF arms and two 17-DOF ORCA hands |
| Vertical workspace | Floor-level access and fingertip reach up to 2.23 meters |
| Mobility | Three-module holonomic swerve base |
| Teleoperation | Vision Pro head and hand tracking at 60 Hz, plus iPhone controls |
| Published parts cost | $8,056, excluding the Vision Pro and assembly labor |
A body built beyond the tabletop
Mobile manipulation in homes and labs requires a robot to travel between work areas, reach the floor and high shelves, reposition its cameras, and coordinate two hands. Open platforms such as Mobile ALOHA and TidyBot++ address parts of that workload, but MABEL combines those capabilities behind one hardware and software interface.
- Arms and hands: Two 7-DOF arms and two 17-DOF ORCA hands provide 48 arm-and-hand DOF.
- Lift and torso: A 0.635-meter vertical lift and a pitching torso extend fingertip reach from the floor to 2.23 meters. The paper compares that figure with a 2.18-meter reference human reach.
- Active vision: A 3-DOF neck moves the stereo cameras independently. Combined neck and torso motion provides roughly three times the camera coverage of the fixed torso-mounted configuration tested by the authors.
Reporting is indexed from AlphaSignal. Rights remain with the original publisher and cited sources.
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