Humanoid Robot Control

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Overview

Humanoid robot control studies how robots coordinate balance, walking, and whole-body actions such as reaching, carrying, and recovering from pushes. Approaches include model-predictive and whole-body controllers grounded in robot dynamics, reinforcement learning and imitation from human motion, and newer perception- or language-conditioned policies. Researchers test these methods in simulation and on hardware across tasks such as terrain navigation, object handling, teleoperation, and sports. A central challenge is making controllers generalize to new motions, bodies, and contact conditions while remaining stable and safe outside simulation.

Latest papers

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206 papers45 papers in the last four weeks, up 45% on the four weeks before. 0.3% of all new papers.

  1. RPG: Robust Policy Gating for Smooth Multi-Skill Transitions in Humanoid Fighting

    Apr 23, 2026Yucheng Xin, Jiacheng Bao, Yubo Dong +5Robot Policy LearningHumanoid Robot Control

    Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, China · Shanghai AI Laboratory, Shanghai Jiao Tong University

  2. Learn Weightlessness: Imitate Non-Self-Stabilizing Motions on Humanoid Robot

    Apr 23, 2026Yucheng Xin, Jiacheng Bao, Haoran Yang +6Robotic ControlHumanoid Robot Control

    Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, China · Shanghai AI Laboratory · University of Science and Technology of China

  3. UniT: Toward a Unified Physical Language for Human-to-Humanoid Policy Learning and World Modeling

    Apr 21, 2026Boyu Chen, Yi Chen, Lu Qiu +3Latent Action LearningHumanoid Robot Control

    XPENG Robotics · Tsinghua University · The University of Hong Kong

  4. Reinforcement Learning Enabled Adaptive Multi-Task Control for Bipedal Soccer Robots

    Apr 21, 2026Yulai Zhang, Yinrong Zhang, Ting Wu +1Legged RoboticsHumanoid Robot Control

    School of Future Technology, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China

  5. Switch: Learning Agile Skills Switching for Humanoid Robots

    Apr 16, 2026Yuen-Fui Lau, Qihan Zhao, Yinhuai Wang +4Humanoid Robot LocomotionHumanoid Robot Control

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

  6. Tree Learning: A Multi-Skill Continual Learning Framework for Humanoid Robots

    Apr 14, 2026Yifei Yan, Linqi YeContinual Robot LearningRobot Skill Learning

    School of Future Technology, Shanghai University, No. 99 Shangda Road, Baoshan District, Shanghai, 200444, Shanghai, China

  7. HEX: Humanoid-Aligned Experts for Cross-Embodiment Whole-Body Manipulation

    Apr 9, 2026Shuanghao Bai, Meng Li, Xinyuan Lv +15Flow Matching for Action GenerationRobotic Control

    Beijing Innovation Center of Humanoid Robotics · Xi’an Jiaotong University · Nankai University +1

  8. Dynamic Whole-Body Dancing with Humanoid Robots -- A Model-Based Control Approach

    Apr 5, 2026Shibowen Zhang, Jiayang Wu, Guannan Liu +12Robot Motion GenerationHumanoid Robot Control

    Department of Automation, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230027, China. · State Key Laboratory of General Artificial Intelligence, Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence (BIGAI), Beijing 100080, China · Department of Automation, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China. +2

  9. SMASH: Mastering Scalable Whole-Body Skills for Humanoid Ping-Pong with Egocentric Vision

    Apr 1, 2026Junli Ren, Yinghui Li, Kai Zhang +12Robotic Table TennisRobotics

  10. BAT: Balancing Agility and Stability via Online Policy Switching for Long-Horizon Whole-Body Humanoid Control

    Apr 1, 2026Donghoon Baek, Sang-Hun Kim, Sehoon HaRL for RoboticsHumanoid Robot Control

    Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30308, USA · Samsung Research

  11. DreamControl-v2: Simpler and Scalable Autonomous Humanoid Skills via Trainable Guided Diffusion Priors

    Mar 31, 2026Sudarshan Harithas, Sangkyung Kwak, Pushkal Katara +6Robot Skill LearningHumanoid Robot Control

    General Robotics, USA · Brown University, USA · University of California, Berkeley, USA

  12. Heracles: Bridging Precise Tracking and Generative Synthesis for General Humanoid Control

    Mar 29, 2026Zelin Tao, Zeran Su, Peiran Liu +13Humanoid Robot ControlRobotic Control

  13. PCHC: Enabling Preference Conditioned Humanoid Control via Multi-Objective Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 25, 2026Huanyu Li, Dewei Wang, Xinmiao Wang +4Robotic ControlHumanoid Robot Control

    Harbin Institute of Technology · University of Science and Technology of China · Harbin Engineering University +2

  14. MIRROR: Visual Motion Imitation via Real-time Retargeting and Teleoperation with Parallel Differential Inverse Kinematics

    Mar 25, 2026Junheng Li, Lizhi Yang, Aaron D. AmesInverse KinematicsRobot Kinematics

    Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, USA.

  15. SafeFlow: Real-Time Text-Driven Humanoid Whole-Body Control via Physics-Guided Rectified Flow and Selective Safety Gating

    Mar 25, 2026Hanbyel Cho, Sang-Hun Kim, Jeonguk Kang +1Robotic ControlHumanoid Robot Control

    Physical AI Lab, RX, Samsung Electronics

  16. Learning Safe-Stoppability Monitors for Humanoid Robots

    Mar 24, 2026Yifan Sun, Yiyuan Pan, Shangtao Li +4Robot SafetyRobotics

    Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA · Foundational Technologies, Siemens Corporation, Princeton, NJ, USA

  17. Make Tracking Easy: Neural Motion Retargeting for Humanoid Whole-body Control

    Mar 23, 2026Qingrui Zhao, Kaiyue Yang, Xiyu Wang +6Motion RetargetingRobot Motion Generation

    Nanjing University · Huawei Technologies

  18. AGILE: A Comprehensive Workflow for Humanoid Loco-Manipulation Learning

    Mar 20, 2026Huihua Zhao, Rafael Cathomen, Lionel Gulich +6RL for RoboticsHumanoid Robot Control

  19. Dynamic Properties and Motion Reproducibility of a Compact Pneumatically Actuated Humanoid Upper Body for Data-Driven Control

    Mar 16, 2026Hiroshi Atsuta, Hisashi Ishihara, Minoru AsadaRobotic ControlRobot Trajectory Tracking

    Symbiotic Intelligent Systems Research Center, Institute for Open and Transdisciplinary Research Initiatives, The University of Osaka, Suita, Osaka, Japan · College of Arts and Design, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan · International Professional University of Technology in Osaka, Umeda, Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan +1

  20. CyboRacket: A Perception-to-Action Framework for Humanoid Racket Sports

    Mar 15, 2026Peng Ren, Chuan Qi, Haoyang Ge +6Vision-Based Robot ControlHumanoid Robot Control

    BUAA · BZA · USTC +3

  21. OmniClone: Engineering a Robust, All-Rounder Whole-Body Humanoid Teleoperation System

    Mar 15, 2026Yixuan Li, Le Ma, Yutang Lin +8Robot TeleoperationHumanoid Robot Control

  22. PhyGile: Physics-Prefix Guided Motion Generation for Agile General Humanoid Motion Tracking

    Mar 13, 2026Jiacheng Bao, Haoran Yang, Yucheng Xin +7Robot Trajectory TrackingHumanoid Robot Control

    Northwestern Polytechnical University · Shanghai AI Laboratory · University of Science and Technology of China +4

  23. Learning Athletic Humanoid Tennis Skills from Imperfect Human Motion Data

    Mar 13, 2026Zhikai Zhang, Haofei Lu, Yunrui Lian +12RoboticsHumanoid Robot Control

    Tsinghua University · Galbot Inc. · Shanghai AI Laboratory +2

  24. Learning to Assist: Physics-Grounded Human-Human Control via Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    Mar 11, 2026Yuto Shibata, Kashu Yamazaki, Lalit Jayanti +3Humanoid Robot ControlAssistive Robotics

    Carnegie Mellon University · Keio AI Research Center · Keio University

  25. FAME: Force-Adaptive RL for Expanding the Manipulation Envelope of a Full-Scale Humanoid

    Mar 9, 2026Niraj Pudasaini, Yutong Zhang, Jensen Lavering +3Bimanual Robotic ManipulationHumanoid Robot Control

    Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556, USA. · Department of Computer Science, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO 80309, USA.

  26. Embedding Classical Balance Control Principles in Reinforcement Learning for Humanoid Recovery

    Mar 9, 2026Nehar Poddar, Stephen McCrory, Luigi Penco +3Humanoid Robot Fall RecoveryHumanoid Robot Control

    Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, Pensacola, FL, USA. · University of West Florida, Pensacola, FL, USA.

  27. MetaWorld-X: Hierarchical World Modeling via VLM-Orchestrated Experts for Humanoid Loco-Manipulation

    Mar 9, 2026Yutong Shen, Hangxu Liu, Penghui Liu +6Humanoid Loco-ManipulationHumanoid Robot Control

    School of Information Science and Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, China · School of Information Science and Engineering, Fudan University, Shanghai, China · University of Alberta, Canada +1

  28. Multifingered force-aware control for humanoid robots

    Mar 9, 2026Pasquale Marra, Gabriele M. Caddeo, Ugo Pattacini +1Humanoid Robot ControlForce-Controlled Robotic Manipulation

    Humanoid Sensing and Perception, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy. · DIBRIS, Universit`a di Genova, Via All’Opera Pia, 13, Genoa, Italy. · MESH Facility, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genoa, Italy

  29. TeamHOI: Learning a Unified Policy for Cooperative Human-Object Interactions with Any Team Size

    Mar 9, 2026Stefan Lionar, Gim Hee LeeHuman-Object InteractionHOI Generation

    Garena · Sea AI Lab · National University of Singapore

  30. InterReal: A Unified Physics-Based Imitation Framework for Learning Human-Object Interaction Skills

    Mar 8, 2026Dayang Liang, Yuhang Lin, Xinzhe Liu +3Imitation LearningRobot Imitation Learning

    Xiamen University · Zhejiang University · ShanghaiTech University +1