Robotics is still data starved. Collecting high-quality robot demonstrations remains brutally slow and expensive. Introducing COBALT: A cloud-native teleoperation platform designed for large-scale robot learning. We are democratizing data collection by leveraging the hardware everyone already owns: the smartphone All you need is to download an app (today)! Read... on for more!show more

Efficiency enables everyone! COBALT's modular, cloud-first architecture supports concurrent, global teleoperation via smartphones, VR, or 3D mice. To maximize efficiency, we utilize vectorization to support multiple parallel users on a single GPU.The result? A near 4x reduction in data collection costs per 1,000 demos on an entry-level NVIDIA T4.

Scale should match quality! Our user study shows that smartphone control yielded shorter completion times and smoother trajectories than traditional inputs (VR, SpaceMouse), with the lowest calibration errors. Real-time metric filtering ensures every collected intervention is rigorous.

In a pilot study, we crowdsourced >7,500 demonstrations (>50 hours of data) in just 5 days across 9 countries, purely using smartphones. We validated this dataset by training SOTA algorithms (ACT, DP) and confirmed compatibility with real physical robots (Franka Panda, YAM arms) We did all this without burning VC Money :😉

Try out COBALT today! Arxiv: Website: Code: iOS App: Android App: released soon. co-led by @agarwal_ayush05 & @angandhi04 alongside collaboration with @jerthesquare_, @omarrayyann, @sarswat_aryan, Ranjani Koushik, @MasoudMoghani, @AjayMandlekar and @animesh_garg.

hey @igoryuzo one of the community members reached out to him and he is interested in getting funding with bankr he is new to base and needs help claiming fees. would be good if you can talk to him.

Hey Animesh, been following COBALT and really admire what you’re building. We run a small Base community and would love to send some token fees your way as a gesture of support w no strings attached. If you’re open to it, just share a Base wallet and we’ll send it over. Good luck

Appreciate your work Animesh!

There was a token created on BASE to help you with funding on COBALT project. Feel free to claim the fees - that's why they are there.

Hey @animesh_garg, tried to send you a DM but your profile don't receive messages, Someone created u a Token on Base Blockchain redirecting the fees to your project If u have any question about it u can send me a message on DMs! If @igoryuzo could talk with u too to explain more, would be great!

smart indirect approach to data collection but aren’t teleops datasets *too tied* to the hw they operate remotely?

It is less about a particular platform but about the teleop infra that scales seamlessly

Is it cooler to integrate token rewards? Users upload training data, receive rewards, and upload it to top robot companies to create a flywheel effect

this account @cobalttteleop is not his, animesh is based in usa, this acc is based in indonesia and has written france in its bio, yall literally buying a coin feeding some random kid in jakarta

Smartphone-teleop solves the collection. Doesn't fix evals or distribution shift past step 1000. Robotics is loop-starved, not data-starved.

that's a problem, but isn't the real issue that current approaches treat teleoperation as a manual labor problem rather than an ai one? cobalt seems to be tackling it from the other direction

hey @animesh_garg are you familiar with @bankrbot and @base 's history of supporting strong tech projects on-chain? I think Cobalt could be a great candidate, the community would be crowdfunding your work (no endorsement necessary or anything, unofficial)

Do you plan to create an X account to receive updates on the COBALT project you're building? @animesh_garg

yes. soon.

Oh, so do you plan to claim the fee from the $COBALT token that the Bankr community created for you earlier? @animesh_garg

this is mega! has this been tried w G1’s? we run a data factory and would be keen to try this teleop setup

Shameless @danfei_xu Stop stealing from students/ interviewees Shame on @gtcomputing

Yessssss brother it feels so good to see people doing teleop instead of putting cameras on their head and washing dishes

Would you be open to accepting support from the @base @bankrbot community?

Seek

COBALT cloud-native teleoperation for large-scale robot demonstrations. Data collection is still brutal

It would be even better if you could take a look at this. @Tesla @Tesla_Optimus @elonmusk

how do you use smartphone to teleop? does one hand hold the phone, so only one hand can be manipulating objects

currently a single phone controls a single arm. Getting 2 phones is possible. we are already working on variables where phone is a 2 arm controller. the use cases can be both data collection, but also assisted telelop for human in the loop autonomy.

fantastic. this is going to unlock lots of applications

What is the CA for this token?

This is revolutionary tech $COBALT 🔥

You can help fund your project with the coin that has been launched for you