For just 3,999 yuan, a robot can handle all household chores. A co-founder of Baobaolian said, "Open source is truly the best!"

3,999 yuan isn't enough to buy an iPhone, but it can get you a DIY robot (doge).

It's also a household chore all - rounder!

It can not only wipe tables:

It can also water plants:

It can even play with cats using a cat teaser:

This open - source robot project named XLeRobot was initiated by Chinese researcher Wang Gaotian, with the cost of parts starting at only 3,999 yuan.

Since the project was open - sourced, it has gained stars rapidly and currently has a cumulative 1.6k stars.

It was also recommended with a "wow" by Thomas Wolf, the co - founder of Hugging Face.

Some netizens joked: If it had a face, the price wouldn't be this low (6,000 US dollars is equivalent to about 43,000 yuan).

An Ultra - Affordable Household Robot

Why is it so cheap?

On the one hand, the parts can be freely adjusted (if you can buy cheaper alternatives, why not?).

The core hardware includes:

LeKiwi: An open - source low - cost mobile manipulator

SO - 100/SO - 101 robotic arm: Also an open - source project, originally designed in collaboration between RobotStudio and Hugging Face

RGB camera

Raspberry Pi 5 (4GB)

IKEA cart

Anker SOLIX C300 power station

The advanced version can also be adjusted to an RGB head camera with a wider field of view.

The author also lists other parts such as the STS3215 servo (15V), omni - wheels, table clamps, etc. in detail in the project documentation.

The estimated assembly time is 4 hours, similar to assembling a box of Lego (or even simpler).

DIY enthusiasts can't hold back their excitement.

On the other hand, in terms of the training method, the code and tutorials refer to multiple open - source projects: LeRobot, SO - 100/SO - 101, Lekiwi, Bamb.

Based on LeRobot Sim2real, XLeRobot only needs 1 hour of reinforcement learning training in a pure simulation environment (Maniskill) using a 4090 GPU to achieve this result:

The project homepage also comes with a complete operation tutorial, guiding you step - by - step from creating a Conda environment to camera visualization.

There is also a complete tutorial on arm and system control.

In addition to being feature - rich and highly operable, it is also quite reassuring in terms of safety.

Look, it can't even beat a cat:

It's pet - friendly and very suitable for household use.

Moreover, it's not just suitable for household use:

Netizens: Long Live Open Source

Once the XLeRobot project was released, it sparked a heated discussion in the open - source community, and it has currently reached 1.6k stars on Github.

Netizens have expressed their eagerness to try it.

Open source is the best. It's not only innovative but also cost - saving.

Moreover, the price is really tempting -

When netizens asked for his views on the next iteration, the project author Wang Gaotian replied:

Future upgrades will be more in the form of modular add - ons.

Next week, the author also plans to officially sell assembly kits for developers on Taobao and JD.com.

About the Team

Wang Gaotian graduated from the School of Physics at the University of Science and Technology of China for his undergraduate studies. During his doctoral studies, he switched to the field of robotics manipulation (Robotics). Currently, he is studying at Rice University, with research interests in generalizable and