AirExo profile: a low-cost exoskeleton for whole-arm teleoperation

Contents

1. How it works
2. Published evidence
3. Strengths and limits
4. Pricing
5. Questions to settle before building
6. Sources

Type	Open-source arm exoskeleton
Founded	Published at ICRA 2024
Pricing	Published
Website	airexo.github.io

Desktop leader arms tie the operator to a bench. AirExo, from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and the Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, puts the leader on the operator’s arms instead⁠1AirExo: low-cost exoskeletons for learning whole-arm manipulation in the wildFang et al. (ICRA 2024).

Best for: Whole-arm demonstrations on a research arm, including collection away from the robot.

Not the right fit for: Teams that want a commercial product, or finger-level capture.

How it works

AirExo is a portable dual-arm exoskeleton with a one-to-one joint mapping to the robot, which gives joint-level teleoperation. The authors put the cost at approximately $300 per arm. It was developed for Flexiv Rizon arms and, they state, can be quickly modified for others including the UR5, Franka and Kuka. Worn away from the robot, it collects demonstrations in the wild⁠1AirExo: low-cost exoskeletons for learning whole-arm manipulation in the wildFang et al. (ICRA 2024).

Published evidence

In the paper, presented at ICRA 2024, a policy trained on 10 teleoperated demonstrations, about 3 minutes, plus in-the-wild data surpassed one trained on 50 teleoperated demonstrations, over 20 minutes, on a grasping task⁠1AirExo: low-cost exoskeletons for learning whole-arm manipulation in the wildFang et al. (ICRA 2024). The result covers the authors’ tasks. Related designs exist for other robots: HOMIE pairs exoskeleton arms with gloves and a pedal for humanoids at a stated $500⁠2HOMIE: humanoid loco-manipulation with isomorphic exoskeleton cockpitBen et al. (RSS 2025), and ACE combines an exoskeleton with a hand-facing camera⁠3ACE: a cross-platform visual-exoskeleton system for low-cost dexterous teleoperationYang et al. (CoRL 2024).

Strengths and limits

Strengths

• Joint-level control like a leader arm, but worn, so the operator’s whole arm does the work.
• Can record demonstrations with no robot present, which removes the robot as the bottleneck.
• The authors report that 3 minutes of teleoperated data plus in-the-wild data matched or beat more than 20 minutes of teleoperated data on their tasks.

Limits

• A research build: no vendor or support.
• Developed for one arm family; other arms need modification.
• The reported results are from the authors’ two tasks, not a general benchmark.

Choose another option if: A desktop leader arm is enough (GELLO), or you are teleoperating a humanoid (HOMIE’s exoskeleton cockpit or a headset).

Pricing

Approximately $300 per arm, as reported by the authors.

Questions to settle before building

• Is our arm one the design already fits, or will we modify it?
• Will in-the-wild collection match the robot’s workspace and camera view?
• How is the exoskeleton fitted to different operators?
• Who repairs it when a joint fails mid-campaign?

See how AirExo compares with the other options in the rig comparison table.

Sources

1. AirExo: low-cost exoskeletons for learning whole-arm manipulation in the wild. Fang et al. (ICRA 2024). Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
2. HOMIE: humanoid loco-manipulation with isomorphic exoskeleton cockpit. Ben et al. (RSS 2025). Accessed 11 Nov 2026.
3. ACE: a cross-platform visual-exoskeleton system for low-cost dexterous teleoperation. Yang et al. (CoRL 2024). Accessed 11 Nov 2026.

Further reading

• Buyer's guide · Updated quarterlyTeleoperation hardware in 2027: controllers, kits and rigs comparedNine ways to put a robot under a person's control, from a $230 pair of printed arms to a $24,000 bimanual station, compared on what they cost and what they record, followed by the line most hardware budgets leave out, the operators.
• Guide · Gloves and exoskeletonsTeleoperation gloves and exoskeletons: what they capture and costRobot hands with fingers need controllers with fingers. Commercial gloves are sold by quote, open designs cost a few hundred dollars to build, and the two groups suit different teams.
• ProfileGELLO profile: a printed leader arm for Franka, UR5 and xArmA replica of your robot arm, printed and assembled for under $300, that controls the real one joint for joint.