NYU and U of T researchers open-source MABEL, a $8K mobile bimanual robot built in three months

Researchers at NYU and the University of Toronto built MABEL in three months, starting in a small NYC apartment, with about $8,000 in parts and two weeks from parts to a tested robot. Everything is open-sourced: hardware, firmware, teleop, controllers, learning pipelines, and digital twin simulation. Teleoperation uses Apple Vision Pro, and datasets export in LeRobot format. The team cites a gap: commercial mobile bimanual robots cost $70,000–150,000, while open-source options lack capabilities. Kits cost $14,000; fully assembled units $25,000 (waitlisted).

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