How does high-fidelity tactile simulation help robots nail the... last millimeter? We’re releasing VT-Refine, accepted to CoRL: a real-to-sim-to-real visuo-tactile policy using a GPU-parallel tactile sim for our piezoresistive skin FlexiTac. Then fine-tuning a diffusion policy with large-scale RL in simulation. Website: #CoRL2025 #RobotLearning #Sim2Realshow more

Tactile interaction in the wild can unlock fine-grained manipulation!... 🌿🤖✋ We built a portable handheld tactile gripper that enables large-scale visuo-tactile data collection in real-world settings. By pretraining on this data, we bridge vision and touch—allowing robots to: ✅ Perform robust in-hand reorientation ✅ Control contact and force with precision 🔗 Project page: (1/6)show more

Robora Sim: A PyBullet-Powered Environment for Learning Robotic Physical... Intelligence We are currently building our Robora simulation environment setup for our sim based learning, leveraging PyBullet, an industry-standard physics engine widely used in AI-driven robotics research and development. The environment is optimized with GPU-accelerated learning algorithms, enabling high-speed imitation learning and reinforcement learning within a safe and controlled virtual setup before shipping out to real world. This simulation platform allows our models to learn, adapt, and generalize across different robot morphologies, terrain types and task objectives - all before deployment to the real world. At it's core, the system combines a VLA-powered high-level planner with low-level motion control algorithms, working cohesively to produce emergent, physically intelligent behaviors. This synergy between simulation, learning, and real-world transfer marks a major step forward in our pursuit of adaptive and intelligent robotic systems. Through advanced domain randomization and synthetic data generation, the Robora Simulation Environment ensures that policies trained in simulation transfer effectively to real-world robots, minimizing the sim-to-real gap. Moreover, users will be able to test and integrate their own hardware kits within selected simulation environments in the Robora Dapp, ensuring seamless compatibility and safer real-world implementation.show more

Generalist robot policies need a benchmark that works across... any robot and any policy. 🦾 Introducing RoboLab, a high‑fidelity simulation benchmark built on NVIDIA Isaac and Omniverse to evaluate generalist robot policies in diverse, photoreal, physics‑based environments. Coming soon to the NVIDIA Isaac Lab‑Arena roadmap for large‑scale, robotic policy evaluation. 📖 #NationalRoboticsWeekshow more

Haven't been to a conference in a while, really... excited to be at #NeurIPS2024! I'll be helping present 4 of our group's recent papers: 1. Overcoming the Sim-to-Real Gap: Leveraging Simulation to Learn to Explore for Real-World RL 2. Distributional Successor Features Enable Zero-Shot Policy Optimization 3. Learning to Cooperate with Humans using Generative Agents 4. Personalizing Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback with Variational Preference Learning Find more details on each paper and where to find us in this thread (1/6)show more

Bringing new meaning to the word NeRD at #CoRL2025.... 🤓 Neural Robot Dynamics (NeRD) bridges the sim-to-real gap with a hybrid of neural modeling and analytical simulation, unlocking zero-shot transfer and continuous learning loops for optimal robotics training. Read more & try it in Newton 🤖show more

Meet #HillbotAlpha, the first fully autonomous mobile manipulation robot... trained using sim-to-real technology. Designed in Hillbot’s San Diego headquarters, Hillbot Alpha represents the potential of data synthesis via simulation in robotics. Through a robust strategy that combines a small sample of real-world data with synthetic data, Hillbot Alpha can effectively adapt to evolving task requirements and environments while working safely beside humans. #Hillbot #AGI #EmbodiedAI #AI #Sim2Real #ArtificialIntelligence #Simulation #Simtorealshow more

Excited to share a few presentations, demos, and workshop... talks from our group and collaborators at #ICRA2026! We will present recent work on real-to-sim-to-real robot policy evaluation, model-based planning with learned dynamics, and multi-modal manipulation. We will also have a joint live demo between SceniX and Analog Devices, Inc. on real-to-sim-to-real cable manipulation at the ICRA exhibition. This is a small teaser of what we have been building, with more to come soon! If you are at ICRA, please stop by the sessions or the demo booth. Happy to chat about robot learning, simulation, world models, and sim-to-real!show more

What if you could turn a single 360° photo... into a production-ready Isaac Sim environment in minutes? That's exactly what we did here. Using World Labs' Marble and an Insta360 X5 capture (rotating on top), we generated a complete navigable 3D environment and populated it with Lightwheel Sim Ready assets (bottom view). The result? A fully interactive scene in Isaac Sim, ready for sim2real testing,. Navigation, manipulation, or any robotics task you need to validate. What used to take weeks of manual 3D modeling and asset placement now takes minutes. Capture once in the real world, simulate everywhere in your training pipeline. This is the future of robotics development with world models. NVIDIA Robotics NVIDIA Omniverse #Sim2Real #Robotics #Simulationshow more

System identification (sysid) is the process of finding the... physical parameters that make a simulation match reality. If you're training an RL locomotion policy in simulation, the accuracy of your motor model directly affects how well the policy transfers to the real robot. A recent git commit by Kevin Zakka added a sysid toolbox to MuJoCo which automates this process: you provide recorded motor data and a MuJoCo model, and it optimizes the model parameters to minimize the difference between simulated and real trajectories. For my RobStride Dynamics RS02 QDD motors (17 Nm peak, 7.75:1 gear), I built a Rust tool that sends multi-sine torque excitation at 1 kHz and records position/velocity feedback. I then feed this data into MuJoCo's sysid optimizer.show more

Pretty human-like hand Beijing-based SynapX will unveil its tendon-driven... OctoH-Hand at WRC. Human-scale in size, the hand uses a hybrid architecture combining fully tendon-driven actuation with direct-drive motors in the forearm. It integrates 28 independently controllable actuators and 23 active DoF, along with tactile sensors embedded in the palm. Interestingly…SynapX is building more than just a dexterous hand. It has also developed a World model(SYNWorld), and a data collection system(OctoSense), creating a loop from data collection to world understanding and policy generation, and finally to real-world execution and feedback. Another physical AI bridge for humanoid robots.show more

New research from Databricks: LLMs Can Learn to Reason... via Off-Policy RL Optimal Advantage-based Policy Optimization with Lagged Inference policy (OAPL) shows you don’t need strict on-policy training to improve reasoning. It matches or beats Group Relative Policy Optimization (GRPO), stays stable with large policy lag, and uses ~3× fewer training generations. For Databricks customers, it’s a simpler, practical, and equally powerful approach to RL that Databricks is pioneering internally — and bringing directly to Databricks customers, so enterprises can improve agents using the same methods we use for our in-house agents, without complex infrastructure changes.show more

𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 “𝗣𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗔𝗜" - the idea that... we can simulate real-world environments so well that robots trained in simulation will work perfectly in reality. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗺𝗶𝘀𝗲: Train in virtual worlds → deploy anywhere. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: I’ve seen too many teams fall into this trap. After working with manipulation teams at Berkeley, Imperial, and Dyson, here’s the pattern: • 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟭: “Our policy works perfectly in simulation!” • 𝗪𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝟰: “Why doesn’t this work on real objects?” • 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵 𝟮: “We basically need to retrain from scratch with real data.” 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗻’𝘁 𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗴𝗲: Unlike blind locomotion policies that can get away with sim-to-real transfer because they rely mainly on proprioception and contact forces, 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗮𝗽𝘀. • Real friction vs simulated surface textures • Manufacturing tolerances vs perfect CAD models • Dynamic lighting vs controlled virtual environments • Sensor noise vs instantaneous virtual readings 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲'𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁: Building these detailed simulated environments takes forever. If it takes 7 days to build a simulated kitchen in simulation, wouldn't it be better to just collect real-world data in a real kitchen instead? 𝗗𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗴 - simulation is incredible for debugging, safety testing, and exploring edge cases. But it's not a magic solution to real-world deployment. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀: Use simulation strategically while making real-world data collection as efficient and flexible as possible. This is why Neuracore focuses on streamlined real-world data infrastructure. Because no amount of virtual training can replace understanding how your robot actually behaves in actual environments. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗵𝘆𝘀𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗲𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆. What’s been your experience with sim-to-real transfer?show more

I want to call out one of our most... important references: SIMPLER ( by Xuanlin Li (Simon), Kyle Hsu, Jiayuan Gu, Jiajun Wu, Hao Su, Quan Vuong, Ted Xiao, and colleagues, which laid the foundation for using simulation for policy evaluation through a systematic study of appearance and dynamics alignment and metrics for measuring sim–real correlation. (It took many nights of Kaifeng Zhang and Shuo Sha's grinding for that correlation to appear — and once it did, extending to new tasks worked like a charm!)show more

𝗣𝗼𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝗿 𝗼𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻: "𝗝𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗶𝗺𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮." After working... with many 𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 teams who've fallen into the simulation trap, here's what I've learned: Simulation teaches your robot to be really, really good at simulation. Unlike blind locomotion policies that can get away with sim-to-real transfer because they rely mainly on proprioception and contact forces, 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗴𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗽𝘂𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗼𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗴𝗮𝗽. The subtle differences accumulate: - Simulated friction vs real surface textures - Perfect lighting vs shadows, reflections, glare - Ideal object geometries vs manufacturing tolerances - Instantaneous sensor readings vs real-world noise and latency - Clean backgrounds vs cluttered, dynamic environments 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗰 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻: Week 1: "Our model works perfectly in sim!" Week 2: "Let's collect some real data to fine-tune." Week 3: "The real data completely contradicts what the sim taught..." Week 4: "Okay, let's collect way more real data." Month 2: "We basically need to retrain from scratch." 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵: There's no shortcut to real-world data collection for vision-based manipulation. Simulation is amazing for debugging, prototyping, safety testing, and of course to supplement your real data. But it's not a substitute for understanding how your robot actually behaves in the actual environment. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀: Use simulation strategically - for exploring edge cases, testing safety boundaries, and rapid iteration. But build your production models on real data from real environments. The teams that succeed treat simulation as a powerful tool, not a magic solution. This is why Neuracore focuses on making real-world data collection so much easier and faster. Because the physics of your actual environment can't be simulated away. 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗹𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹𝘀, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝘀𝗮𝘆? 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘀 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁! 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁'𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝘀𝗶𝗺-𝘁𝗼-𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗲𝗿? 𝗛𝗮𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝘀 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝘀 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱?show more

We’ve seen humanoid robots walk around for a while,... but when will they actually help with useful tasks in daily life? The challenge here is the diversity and complexity of real-world scenes. Our new work tackles this problem via 3D visuomotor policy learning. Using data from only 1 scene, our Improved 3D Diffusion Policy (iDP3) enables a full-sized humanoid robot to autonomously pick&place objects, pour water, and wipe tables, in the wild open world. (and all these skills are useful, right?) Web: Fully open-sourced code:show more

Multi-robot learning is getting a serious boost! 📚 Researchers... have extended Isaac Lab to train heterogeneous multi-agent robotic policies at scale. The new framework supports high-resolution physics, GPU-accelerated simulation, and both homogeneous and heterogeneous agents working together on coordination tasks. They benchmarked different approaches (MAPPO: Multi-Agent Proximal Policy Optimization and HAPPO: Heterogeneous Agent PPO) across six challenging scenarios and showed that large-scale multi-robot training is not only feasible, but efficient. It’s an important step for real-world robotic collaboration, where teams of robots need to coordinate, split tasks, adapt roles, and interact dynamically, not just operate as identical clones. The code is open-source, and it pushes Isaac Lab closer to what robotics actually needs: scalable, physics-driven environments where many different robots can learn to work together. Here's the project page: ~~ ♻️ Join the weekly robotics newsletter, and never miss any news →show more

We’re excited to announce our integration with SKALE, a... high-performance, zero-gas blockchain purpose-built for speed, scale, and security. This partnership strengthens our infrastructure as we continue building transparent, trust-based systems for decentralized science. We’re excited about what this unlocks for researchers, contributors, and the future of data integrity in DeSci. 👀 Look out for more on how we’re using SKALE in the AxonDAO ecosystem.show more

The future of housework just leaked on GitHub and... nobody is talking about it. knox byte just open sourced a framework that coordinates swarms of Unitree G1 humanoid robots to clean your entire house on their own. It's called ARGOS. You tell it "clean the bedroom" in plain English and 2+ G1 robots split the room into zones, sweep in parallel, and sync up for the tasks that need four hands like making the bed or moving furniture. The Claude API decomposes your sentence into a task graph. An auction system makes every robot bid on every task based on distance, battery, and current load. The cheapest robot wins. Cooperative jobs go to the cheapest team. Here's what makes this different from every demo video Boston Dynamics keeps teasing: → 12 cleaning tasks baked in sweeping, mopping, wiping, vacuuming, taking out trash, making the bed, changing sheets, moving furniture, sorting items → 3 policy architectures running underneath OpenVLA-7B for language tasks, Diffusion Policy for floor coverage, ACT for dexterous bimanual work → Train it on your own footage record yourself cleaning, run one command, it extracts poses, builds a LeRobot dataset, and LoRA fine-tunes the policy → PEFA protocol for cooperative work Propose, Execute, Feedback, Adjust. If one robot fails halfway through making the bed, the team replans and retries → Full MuJoCo simulation so you test policies before pushing them to real hardware → Silver and cyan terminal dashboard that shows live fleet status, zone maps, task queues, and battery levels in real time The G1 robots talk to each other over CycloneDDS mesh using Unitree's native SDK. No cloud. No middleware. The whole thing runs on a Jetson Orin inside each robot. The wildest part is the training pipeline. Drop cleaning videos into a folder, run argos train ingest, and the framework does the entire pipeline frame extraction, pose estimation, action labeling, HDF5 dataset, fine-tune, evaluate in sim, deploy to robot. One command per stage. Unitree G1s already exist. The framework to make them clean your house just hit GitHub. 52 stars. MIT License. 100% Opensource.show more

World modeling and imitation learning have largely been considered... two disparate worlds. In our recent work, Unified World Models, just accepted to #RSS2025, Chuning Zhu provides a dead-simple unifying solution: just train a joint diffusion model over actions and future states, but with *decoupled* diffusion time steps across these modalities. Manipulating these decoupled time steps then allows for marginalization or conditioning on actions or states; a single model can serve as a policy, forward dynamics model, video prediction model, or inverse dynamics model by simply setting diffusion timesteps carefully. The resulting model can leverage video datasets along with robot training data much more effectively, and shows improved robustness, generalization, and flexibility. This is exciting because it is frustratingly simple, scalable, and shows strong improvement on real-world robotics problems. Please refer to Chuning Zhu 's excellent thread for more details! More details/code can be found on our website and in the paper -show more