Overview

ALOHA is a foundational open-source bimanual manipulation platform introduced at RSS 2023 (arXiv:2304.13705). It uses a leader-follower (puppeteering) teleoperation scheme: an operator physically moves two low-cost WidowX leader arms, and two ViperX 300 6DOF follower arms replicate the motion in real time. Four RGB cameras (two stationary, two wrist-mounted) stream synchronized video for demonstration collection, which is then used to train ACT imitation-learning policies capable of precise, contact-rich tasks. The system is deliberately low-cost and reproducible from 3D-printed parts plus off-the-shelf Trossen/Interbotix arms, and is distributed both as open hardware and as a purchasable Trossen ALOHA kit.

Highlights

• Most-cited low-cost bimanual data-collection platform since 2023 (RSS 2023, arXiv:2304.13705)
• 4 arms total: 2x ViperX 300 6DOF followers + 2x WidowX leaders (leader-follower teleoperation)
• Fully open-source: 3D-print parts, hardware assembly tutorial, and ACT training code on GitHub
• 4 RGB cameras (2 stationary + 2 wrist-mounted) at 480x640 for multi-view demonstrations
• Approx. $20k DIY/kit budget; ALOHA kit purchasable from Trossen Robotics
• Introduced alongside ACT (Action Chunking with Transformers) for precise fine manipulation

Specifications