UCLA Builds a $400 Smartphone-Based Bipedal Robot

UCLA (RoMeLa) has created an open-source bipedal robot called PhoneBot, standing 48 cm tall and weighing 1.8 kg, where a standard Android smartphone serves as the camera, IMU, and onboard computer, with parts costing about $400 without the phone.

Compiled by Sergey KostenchukPublished 2026-10-14Updated 2026-10-14

2026-10-14 Research

🤖 UCLA Builds a $400 Smartphone-Based Bipedal Robot

UCLA (RoMeLa) has published an arXiv paper (arXiv:2610.08737) about PhoneBot — an open-source bipedal robot standing 48 cm tall and weighing 1.8 kg, where a standard Android smartphone replaces the camera, IMU, and computer. The body with 13 servos costs about $400, while comparable humanoids range from $3,500 to $13,800.

🌍 A cheap smartphone handles perception, SLAM, and walking control, reducing the barrier to entry for humanoid research by roughly 10 times: the platform is accessible to universities, students, and small labs, while open designs and code make it reproducible.

👤 The paper and designs are open, and a similar robot can be built by yourself; the walking neural network uses only 8.5–13.4% of the CPU, SLAM up to 34.3%, and on an old Honor 9 and budget phones costing $50–$80, the robot walks, stands up, and tracks a person.

Source 1: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.08737 Source 2: https://phonebot.dev/

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