Four-Day DIY: $120 Robot Arm Powered by GPT‑4o Tackles Spills in Seconds
Meet the Low‑Cost, High‑Energy Cleaning Duo
What if you could turn a $250 robot arm into a spotless cleaning hero in just four days? That’s exactly what Jannik Grothusen and Kaspar Janssen did at UC Berkeley and ETH Zurich. They recruited two budget‑friendly robot arms (each costing roughly $120) and taught them how to mop up spills using GPT‑4o. The result? A gleaming machine that can be built with $120 hardware, a smartphone‑sized AI, and about 100 quick demos. The whole process took just four days.
The duo didn’t stop at a simple command interface. They created a visual language model for human‑robot interaction that lets you signal a “clean up” gesture and the robots respond instantly. The mind‑blowing part? The entire code suite is open source, so anyone can spin up their own cleaning bot on a tight budget.
Step‑by‑Step: How to Build Your Own Clean‑up Companion
- Gather the gear: Two cheap robot arms – about $120 each, a laptop, and a smartphone.
- Teach it a few moves: Record roughly 100 demonstrations of the robots scooping, sweeping, and wiping.
- Boot up GPT‑4o: Feed it the demo data, and let it auto‑generate a clean‑up routine.
- Test on a spill: Place a small spill on the floor—watch the robots swoop in like professional janitors.
Why This Matters
Open‑source robotics isn’t just a trend; it’s democratizing automation. By sharing plans on The Robot Studio YouTube channel, these researchers have given hobbyists and indie makers the tools to create functional robots without breaking the bank.
So, if you’re tired of dishes piling up and want a robot twist on household chores, why not give it a try? Those $120 arms could be your next nighttime cleaning buddy, and the GPT‑4o brain will keep the mess at bay.
