MiniBEE: A New Form Factor for Compact Bimanual Dexterity

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Islam, Sharfin, Chen, Zewen, He, Zhanpeng, Bhatt, Swapneel, Permuy, Andres, Taylor, Brock, Vickery, James, Lu, Zhengbin, Zhang, Cheng, Piacenza, Pedro, Ciocarlie, Matei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Islam, Sharfin
Chen, Zewen
He, Zhanpeng
Bhatt, Swapneel
Permuy, Andres
Taylor, Brock
Vickery, James
Lu, Zhengbin
Zhang, Cheng
Piacenza, Pedro
Ciocarlie, Matei
author_facet Islam, Sharfin
Chen, Zewen
He, Zhanpeng
Bhatt, Swapneel
Permuy, Andres
Taylor, Brock
Vickery, James
Lu, Zhengbin
Zhang, Cheng
Piacenza, Pedro
Ciocarlie, Matei
contents Bimanual robot manipulators can achieve impressive dexterity, but typically rely on two full six- or seven- degree-of-freedom arms so that paired grippers can coordinate effectively. This traditional framework increases system complexity while only exploiting a fraction of the overall workspace for dexterous interaction. We introduce the MiniBEE (Miniature Bimanual End-effector), a compact system in which two reduced-mobility arms (3+ DOF each) are coupled into a kinematic chain that preserves full relative positioning between grippers. To guide our design, we formulate a kinematic dexterity metric that enlarges the dexterous workspace while keeping the mechanism lightweight and wearable. The resulting system supports two complementary modes: (i) wearable kinesthetic data collection with self-tracked gripper poses, and (ii) deployment on a standard robot arm, extending dexterity across its entire workspace. We present kinematic analysis and design optimization methods for maximizing dexterous range, and demonstrate an end-to-end pipeline in which wearable demonstrations train imitation learning policies that perform robust, real-world bimanual manipulation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_01603
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle MiniBEE: A New Form Factor for Compact Bimanual Dexterity
Islam, Sharfin
Chen, Zewen
He, Zhanpeng
Bhatt, Swapneel
Permuy, Andres
Taylor, Brock
Vickery, James
Lu, Zhengbin
Zhang, Cheng
Piacenza, Pedro
Ciocarlie, Matei
Robotics
Bimanual robot manipulators can achieve impressive dexterity, but typically rely on two full six- or seven- degree-of-freedom arms so that paired grippers can coordinate effectively. This traditional framework increases system complexity while only exploiting a fraction of the overall workspace for dexterous interaction. We introduce the MiniBEE (Miniature Bimanual End-effector), a compact system in which two reduced-mobility arms (3+ DOF each) are coupled into a kinematic chain that preserves full relative positioning between grippers. To guide our design, we formulate a kinematic dexterity metric that enlarges the dexterous workspace while keeping the mechanism lightweight and wearable. The resulting system supports two complementary modes: (i) wearable kinesthetic data collection with self-tracked gripper poses, and (ii) deployment on a standard robot arm, extending dexterity across its entire workspace. We present kinematic analysis and design optimization methods for maximizing dexterous range, and demonstrate an end-to-end pipeline in which wearable demonstrations train imitation learning policies that perform robust, real-world bimanual manipulation.
title MiniBEE: A New Form Factor for Compact Bimanual Dexterity
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01603