UCLA team unveils low-cost humanoid robot powered by smartphone
The open-source PhoneBot uses an older Android phone for its cameras, sensors and computing, with the non-phone hardware costing about $400.
By Standard Topic. AI-generated from the reporting listed under Coverage. Published . Updated .
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What happened
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles developed PhoneBot, an open-source humanoid robot platform. It uses a low-cost older Android smartphone as its camera, sensors and computing unit. The 48.3 cm, 1.8 kg robot walks, tracks people and gets back up after falling.
Why it matters
The design shows that inexpensive hardware and a smartphone can replace dedicated sensors in a humanoid robot. The hardware excluding the phone costs about $400.
Timeline
- Oct 18, 4:20 PM ET: PhoneBot was reported as an open-source humanoid robot that walks, tracks people and gets back up using a smartphone instead of dedicated sensors.
- Oct 19, 1:10 AM ET: The UCLA researchers' PhoneBot debuted, with the robot using 13 servo motors and measuring 48.3 cm and 1.8 kg.
Coverage
- Low-cost older smartphones become humanoid robot brains as $400 PhoneBot debuts (digitaltoday.co.kr)
- PhoneBot uses an old $50 Android smartphone brain with its cameras as eyes — tech Frankenstein is an open source humanoid robot platform for makers (techradar.com)
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