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Leader-Follower Teleoperation

OpenArm supports 1:1 teleoperation from a leader arm to a follower arm in two control modes:

Unilateral Control

The follower arm mimics the leader's movements using position commands. Simple one-way control with gravity compensation.

  • Pros: Simple setup, excellent for free-space tasks
  • Cons: No contact feedback; easy to over-push or misalign during delicate manipulation
  • Best for: Open environments with minimal obstacles, lightweight and fast movements, tasks without surface contact
Unilateral leader-follower control

Bilateral Control

Bilateral teleoperation enables haptic feedback. You feel what the robot feels. It exchanges both position and force data bidirectionally, allowing operators to sense the forces the follower arm experiences.

This produces high-quality demonstration data (motion + force) essential for imitation learning and contact-rich policy training.

  • Pros: Precise contact manipulation, reduced operator fatigue, rich demonstration data (motion + force)
  • Cons: Requires additional setup and tuning, needs stable communication
  • Best for: Contact-rich tasks, force-sensitive manipulation, working with deformables, precision insertions, collaborative tasks near humans

How Our Bilateral Control Works?

OpenArm's bilateral controller uses a disturbance observer-based acceleration control system for sensorless force estimation. This approach delivers accurate and responsive force feedback without dedicated torque sensors, enabling high-fidelity haptic teleoperation at low hardware cost.

Bilateral control diagram