Smartphones combine cameras, motion sensors and powerful processors in devices that fit inside a pocket. These features could also make them useful components for robots, reducing the need to buy and connect separate sensors, processors or other electronics.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, recently developed PhoneBot, a small humanoid robot that relies on an Android smartphone to sense its surroundings and control its movements. Their proposed system, introduced in a preprint posted to arXiv, could make robotics experiments more accessible for students and researchers worldwide.