DEX-Mouse: A Low-cost Portable and Universal Interface with Force Feedback for Data Collection of Dexterous Robotic Hands

TL;DR

DEX-Mouse is an affordable, portable, calibration-free teleoperation device with force feedback, enabling cross-platform dexterous hand data collection without operator-specific calibration.

Contribution

It introduces a universal, operator-agnostic interface with integrated force feedback built from off-the-shelf components, eliminating calibration and structural modifications.

Findings

Operators achieved 86.67% task completion rate with DEX-Mouse.

The attached configuration reduced operator workload.

Open-source hardware and software facilitate adoption.

Abstract

Data-driven dexterous hand manipulation requires large-scale, physically consistent demonstration data. Simulation and video-based methods suffer from sim-to-real gaps and retargeting problems, while MoCap glove-based teleoperation systems require per-operator calibration and lack portability, as the robot hand is typically fixed to a stationary arm. Portable alternatives improve mobility but lack cross-platform and cross-operator compatibility. We present DEX-Mouse, a portable, calibration-free hand-held teleoperation interface with integrated kinesthetic force feedback, built from commercial off-the-shelf components under USD 150. The operator-agnostic design requires no calibration or structural modification, enabling immediate deployment across diverse environments and platforms. The interface supports a configuration in which the target robot hand is mounted directly on the forearm of an operator, producing robot-aligned data. In a comparative user study across various dexterous manipulation tasks, operators using the proposed system achieved an 86.67% task completion rate under the attached configuration. Also, we found that the attached configuration reduced the perceived workload of the operators compared to spatially separated teleoperation setups across all compared interfaces. The complete hardware and software stack, including bill of materials, CAD models, and firmware, is open-sourced at https://dex-mouse.github.io/ to facilitate replication and adoption.