ModPack wearable backpack lets you teleoperate robots with haptic feedback
A wearable backpack turns you into a robot pilot with plug-and-play modules...
Columbia University researchers (Citron, Zbizika, Liu, Song) have open-sourced ModPack, a modular teleoperation system designed to unify control across diverse robot embodiments. The system's core is a wearable backpack that houses all onboard compute, power, communication, and data storage—eliminating the need for tethering or external servers. On top of this shared interface, users can snap on capability modules: joint-level teleoperation with haptic feedback, mobile manipulation via joysticks, or active perception using stereo cameras.
In tests across two distinct robot platforms (including a bimanual mobile manipulator), ModPack enabled fluid real-world tasks like picking and placing objects while moving. The open-source release includes complete hardware CAD files, PCB schematics, and a ROS 2 software stack, making it a drop-in solution for robotics labs looking to accelerate data collection and imitation learning. By abstracting away hardware-specific drivers, ModPack lets researchers focus on policy development rather than reinventing the teleoperation wheel.
- Wearable 'backpack' integrates onboard compute (NVIDIA Jetson), 5G communication, and 2-hour battery life
- Supports plug-and-play module: joint-level teleoperation with haptic feedback, mobile base control, and active perception
- Open-source hardware and software (ROS 2) tested on two different robot platforms for real-world mobile manipulation
Why It Matters
ModPack standardizes teleoperation for research, slashing setup time and enabling scalable data collection for robot learning.