Nori Bot: A Sub-$1,000 Floor-to-Counter Mobile Manipulator

TL;DR

Nori Bot is an affordable, open-source mobile manipulator that overcomes key limitations of sub-$1,000 platforms through innovative hardware and software safety features, enabling autonomous floor-to-counter tasks.

Contribution

The paper introduces Nori Bot, a low-cost mobile manipulator with enhanced reach, autonomous control, and safety features, and provides open-source code and design resources.

Findings

Nori Bot costs $947, about 3% of comparable platforms.

It features a 600mm Z-axis lift for floor-to-counter reach.

The system includes a safety stack with sensorless grip-force feedback.

Abstract

Open-source mobile manipulators have reached $660 (XLeRobot) but every sub-$1,000 platform shares three limitations: a fixed-height workspace, reactive-only control, and no protection against the stall-induced burn-out that destroys cheap Feetech servos. We present Nori Bot, a 17-DoF dual-arm mobile manipulator at $947 (~3% the cost of comparable commercial platforms) that addresses all three: (1) a 600mm Z-axis lift on the existing servo bus for floor-to-counter reach; (2) a thin-client Raspberry Pi 4 paired with the OpenClaw proactive agent runtime so cron jobs and hooks trigger physical tasks autonomously; and (3) a software safety stack with sensorless grip-force feedback via motor current on a soft TPU finger. Code, CAD, and the skill manifest will be released.