Robotic Manipulation

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Overview

Robotic manipulation studies how machines use sensing and motion to change objects and environments, from picking and assembly to tool use and handling deformable materials. Approaches combine geometric planning and force or impedance control with imitation learning, reinforcement learning, diffusion policies, and vision-language-action models; world models, memory, tactile feedback, and human-video demonstrations are also used. Methods are tested in simulation and on real robots using suites such as LIBERO, RoboTwin, ManiSkill, and RLBench, across clutter, bimanual coordination, mobile manipulation, and precision contact tasks. A central challenge is turning benchmark performance into safe, reliable long-horizon behavior across new objects, cameras, robot bodies, and real-world dynamics, while limiting data collection and inference costs.

Latest papers

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1,685 papers341 papers in the last four weeks, up 29% on the four weeks before. 2.0% of all new papers.

  1. Lucid-XR: An Extended-Reality Data Engine for Robotic Manipulation

    Apr 30, 2026Yajvan Ravan, Adam Rashid, Alan Yu +8Robotic Data CollectionRobotics Simulation

    MIT CSAIL · 2FortyFive Labs · 3Caltech +3

  2. LaST-R1: Reinforcing Robotic Manipulation via Adaptive Physical Latent Reasoning

    Apr 30, 2026Hao Chen, Jiaming Liu, Zhonghao Yan +10RL for RoboticsRobot Foundation Models

    1The Chinese University of Hong Kong · 2State Key Laboratory of Multimedia Information Processing, School of Computer Science, Peking University · 3Simplexity Robotics

  3. RopeDreamer: A Kinematic Recurrent State Space Model for Dynamics of Flexible Deformable Linear Objects

    Apr 30, 2026Tim Missal, Lucas Domingues, Berk Guler +3Latent Dynamics ModelingRobotic Manipulation

    Technical University of Darmstadt · School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil · Instituto de Pesquisas Eldorado, Brazil +5

  4. Robot Learning from Human Videos: A Survey

    Apr 30, 2026Junyi Ma, Erhang Zhang, Haoran Yang +4Robot Skill LearningRobotic Manipulation

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China · University of Cambridge, UK

  5. Interaction Forces and Internal Loads in Parallel Manipulators with Actuation Redundancy

    Apr 29, 2026Joshua Flight, Clément GosselinRobotic ControlRobotics

  6. STARRY: Spatial-Temporal Action-Centric World Modeling for Robotic Manipulation

    Apr 29, 2026Yuxuan Tian, Yurun Jin, Bin Yu +5World Models for RoboticsBimanual Robotic Manipulation

    Beijing Institute of Technology · Zhongguancun Academy · Zhongguancun Institute of Artificial Intelligence +4

  7. 2D and 3D Grasp Planners for the GET Asymmetrical Gripper

    Apr 29, 2026Andrew Goldberg, Ethan Ransing, Anton Kourakin +3Robotic GraspingRobotic Manipulation

    The AUTOLab at UC Berkeley · Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  8. Privileged Foresight Distillation: Zero-Cost Future Correction for World Action Models

    Apr 28, 2026Pengcheng Fang, Hongli Chen, Xiaohao CaiWorld Model LearningAction-Conditioned World Models

    The University of Southampton · The University of Queensland

  9. DiscreteRTC: Discrete Diffusion Policies are Natural Asynchronous Executors

    Apr 27, 2026Pengcheng Wang, Kaiwen Hong, Chensheng Peng +4Diffusion PolicyRobotic Manipulation

    UC Berkeley1 · UIUC2 · UT Austin3 +1

  10. Libra-VLA: Achieving Learning Equilibrium via Asynchronous Coarse-to-Fine Dual-System

    Apr 27, 2026Yifei Wei, Linqing Zhong, Yi Liu +4Robotic ControlLanguage-Conditioned Robot Manipulation

    1Beihang University · 2AgiBot

  11. M2M^2-VLA: Boosting Vision-Language Models for Generalizable Manipulation via Layer Mixture and Meta-Skills

    Apr 27, 2026Siyao Xiao, Yuhong Zhang, Zhifang Liu +9Language-Conditioned Robot ManipulationVLM Adaptation

    Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, China. · PengCheng Laboratory, Shenzhen, China. · College of Intelligent Robotics and Advanced Manufacturing, Fudan University, Shanghai, China. +1

  12. Move-Then-Operate: Behavioral Phasing for Human-Like Robotic Manipulation

    Apr 26, 2026Haoming Xu, Lei Lei, Jie Gu +3Robot Skill LearningContact-Rich Robotic Manipulation

    Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou, China. · Rightly Robotics, Hangzhou, China. · Shanghai Innovation Institute, Shanghai, China. +2

  13. EgoLive: A Large-Scale Egocentric Dataset from Real-World Human Tasks

    Apr 26, 2026Yihang Li, Xuelong Wei, Jingzhou Luo +26Robotic Data CollectionRobotic Manipulation

    Joy Future Academy, JD

  14. BridgeACT: Bridging Human Demonstrations to Robot Actions via Unified Tool-Target Affordances

    Apr 25, 2026Yifan Han, Jianxiang Liu, Haoyu Zhang +3Cross-Embodiment Robot LearningRobotic Manipulation

    Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences. · School of Artificial Intelligence, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. · 3South China University of Technology.

  15. RL Token: Bootstrapping Online RL with Vision-Language-Action Models

    Apr 24, 2026Charles Xu, Jost Tobias Springenberg, Michael Equi +4RL Fine-TuningVision-Language-Action Models

    Physical Intelligence

  16. GazeVLA: Learning Human Intention for Robotic Manipulation

    Apr 24, 2026Chengyang Li, Kaiyi Xiong, Yuan Xu +3Long-Horizon Robotic ManipulationRobot Skill Learning

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University · Peking University · ShanghaiTech University +1

  17. A Kinematic Analysis of Palm Degrees of Freedom for Enhancing Thumb Opposability in Robotic Hands

    Apr 24, 2026HyoJae Kang, Yeong Jae Park, Hyunmok Jung +2Robotic Hand DesignDexterous Manipulation

    Advanced Robotics Research Center, Korea Institute of Machinery & Materials (KIMM)

  18. Learning-augmented robotic automation for real-world manufacturing

    Apr 24, 2026Yunho Kim, Quan Nguyen, Taewhan Kim +2Robotic ControlDeformable Object Manipulation

    All authors are with Neuromeka Co., Ltd.

  19. Wiggle and Go! System Identification for Zero-Shot Dynamic Rope Manipulation

    Apr 23, 2026Arthur Jakobsson, Abhinav Mahajan, Karthik Pullalarevu +6Robot Dynamics IdentificationDeformable Object Manipulation

    Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University · University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

  20. VistaBot: View-Robust Robot Manipulation via Spatiotemporal-Aware View Synthesis

    Apr 23, 2026Songen Gu, Yuhang Zheng, Weize Li +6Generalization in Robotic ManipulationNovel View Synthesis

    1Fudan University · 2TARS Robotics · 4NUS +1

  21. Hi-WM: Human-in-the-World-Model for Scalable Robot Post-Training

    Apr 23, 2026Yaxuan Li, Zhongyi Zhou, Yefei Chen +5Robot Policy LearningRobot Policy Adaptation

    Current Robotics · Tsinghua University · Peking University +1

  22. Neuro-Symbolic Manipulation Understanding with Enriched Semantic Event Chains

    Apr 22, 2026Fatemeh ZiaeetabarNext-Action PredictionVideo Action Recognition

    Department of Computer Science, School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, College of Science, University of Tehran, Iran

  23. DeVI: Physics-based Dexterous Human-Object Interaction via Synthetic Video Imitation

    Apr 22, 2026Hyeonwoo Kim, Jeonghwan Kim, Kyungwon Cho +2Imitation LearningRobotic Manipulation

    Seoul National University · RLWRLD

  24. PokeVLA: Empowering Pocket-Sized Vision-Language-Action Model with Comprehensive World Knowledge Guidance

    Apr 22, 2026Yupeng Zheng, Xiang Li, Songen Gu +12Robot Foundation ModelsEfficient VLA Models

    CASIA · TARS Robotics · Tsinghua University +3

  25. Visual-Tactile Peg-in-Hole Assembly Learning from Peg-out-of-Hole Disassembly

    Apr 22, 2026Yongqiang Zhao, Xuyang Zhang, Zhuo Chen +3RL for RoboticsContact-Rich Robotic Manipulation

    Department of Engineering, King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom · Department of Informatics, King’s College London, Strand, London, WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom

  26. Cortex 2.0: Grounding World Models in Real-World Industrial Deployment

    Apr 22, 2026Adriana Aida, Walid Amer, Katarina Bankovic +25Long-Horizon Robotic ManipulationWorld Models for Robotics

    Sereact GmbH

  27. JoyAI-RA 0.1: A Foundation Model for Robotic Autonomy

    Apr 22, 2026Tianle Zhang, Zhihao Yuan, Dafeng Chi +59Robot Skill LearningRobot Foundation Models

  28. VLA Foundry: A Unified Framework for Training Vision-Language-Action Models

    Apr 21, 2026Jean Mercat, Sedrick Keh, Kushal Arora +5Robotic ManipulationVLA Model Training

    Toyota Research Institute

  29. Wrench-Aware Admittance Control for Unknown-Payload Manipulation

    Apr 21, 2026Hossein Gholampour, Logan E. BeaverAdmittance ControlRobotic Manipulation

    Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA 23529, USA

  30. RoboWM-Bench: A Benchmark for Evaluating World Models in Robotic Manipulation

    Apr 21, 2026Feng Jiang, Yang Chen, Kyle Xu +8Robotic ManipulationRobot Manipulation Benchmarks

    Peking University · Tsinghua University · Lightwheel