Robotics and embodied AI

Manipulation, locomotion, sim-to-real transfer and autonomous driving: learning systems that have to survive physics.

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arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 10

{\Omega}-QVLA: Robust Quantization for Vision-Language-Action Models via Composite Rotation and Per-step Scaling

arXiv:2605. 28803v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models unify perception, reasoning, and control within a single policy, yet their multi-billion-parameter backbones and diffusion-based action heads make on-device deployment prohibitively expensive.

By Xinyu Wang, Mingze Li, Sicheng Lyu, Dongxiu Liu, Kaicheng Yang, Ziyu Zhao, Yufei Cui, Xiao-Wen Chang, Peng Lu
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 7

Dynamic Object Masks as Goal Representations for Visual Goal-Conditioned Reinforcement Learning

arXiv:2510. 06277v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Goal-conditioned reinforcement learning (GCRL) offers a unified way to pursue diverse tasks, yet most existing methods rely on state- or position-based goal representations that are unavailable in real-world robotics.

By Fahim Shahriar, Cheryl Wang, Alireza Azimi, Gautham Vasan, Hany Hamed, Abhishek Naik, A. Rupam Mahmood, Colin Bellinger
arXiv AI
Aug 7

From Passive Mirrors to Active Agents: Holonic Digital Twins for Physical AI over Networks

arXiv:2608. 06227v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Despite advances in artificial intelligence (AI) across multiple sectors, today's AI tools, including deep learning and generative AI, still fail when embedded into physical systems, such as robots and vehicles operating under real-world physical laws.

By Christo Kurisummoottil Thomas, Omar Hashash, Walid Saad
arXiv AI
Aug 7

SkillMemo: Expert-guided Skill Memory Framework for Compositional Embodied Manipulation

arXiv:2608. 05970v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Embodied visuomotor models, including Diffusion Policy (DP) and Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models, have demonstrated promising performance on robotic manipulation benchmarks.

By Changyuan Wang, Chubin Zhang, Zhenyu Wu, Runhao Li, Angyuan Ma, Ke Chao, Yinan Liang, Xiuwei Xu, Ziwei Wang, Yansong Tang, Jiwen Lu
arXiv AI
Aug 7

Hijacking Robots with a Piece of Paper: A Systematic Study of Physical Prompt Injection in VLM-Controlled Robots

arXiv:2608. 05715v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Vision-Language Models (VLMs) are increasingly deployed as planners in robotic systems, where they translate natural-language commands into executable actions grounded in visual scene understanding.

By S. M . Bhagya P. Samarakoon, M. A. Viraj J. Muthugala, W. K. R. Sachinthana, Mohan Rajesh Elara
arXiv AI
Aug 7

From Economic Agents to Agentic Economies: A Systems Blueprint for Economic World Models

arXiv:2608. 06020v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Economic World Models (EWMs) are generative economic models that simulate how economies evolve from within by modeling heterogeneous agents, their beliefs and actions, and the market and institutional mechanisms through which their interactions produce aggregate outcomes.

By Jiale Han, Xiang Li, Jing Qian, Wenyuan Gu, Pin Gao, Ye Luo, Hongyuan Zha, Dacheng Tao, Benyou Wang, Lin William Cong
arXiv AI
Aug 7

NavTrust: Benchmarking Trustworthiness for Embodied Navigation

arXiv:2603. 19229v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: There are two major categories of embodied navigation: Vision-Language Navigation (VLN), where agents navigate by following natural language instructions; and Object-Goal Navigation (OGN), where agents navigate to a specified target object.

By Huaide Jiang, Yash Chaudhary, Yuping Wang, Zehao Wang, Raghav Sharma, Manan Mehta, Yang Zhou, Lichao Sun, Zhiwen Fan, Zhengzhong Tu, Jiachen Li
arXiv AI
Aug 7

iARCS: Iterative Agentic RL for Controllable 3D Scene Generation

arXiv:2608. 06161v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Synthetic 3D scene generation is increasingly used as a data source for computer vision and embodied AI, but existing generators often optimize perceptual realism without reliably satisfying task-critical functional constraints.

By Saugat Adhikari, Ashok Prasad Neupane, Pramish Paudel, Ajad Chhatkuli, Danda Pani Paudel
arXiv AI
Aug 7

GAUGE: A Measurement-Grounded Benchmark for Physical Fidelity in Simulation Engines and Video World Models

arXiv:2608. 05948v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Physics engines facilitate large-scale training and evaluation for embodied intelligence, while generative video world models are emerging as implicit simulators of future states and interactions.

By Shuai Wang, Yaxin Feng, Xuekun Jiang, Shihan Tian, Ningyu Yan, Xing Shen, Chaoyang Lyu, Hui Wang, Yunsong Zhou, Hanqing Wang, Jiangmiao Pang, Yang Xiang, Xing Gao, Chunhua Shen, Weinan Zhang
arXiv Machine Learning
Aug 7

Robot Learning from Human Demonstrations: Handwritten Alphabet Trajectories and Human-Likeness Evaluation

arXiv:2608. 06221v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Learning from demonstration (LfD) provides a developmental framework through which robots can develop motor skills by observing and imitating human dynamics, reducing reliance on explicit programming to teach a skill to a robot.

By Alperen Kenan, Paul Bremner, Manuel Giuliani
arXiv AI
Aug 7

Search-Aided Joint Agent-Environment Reinforcement Learning for Robust Lifelong Multi-Agent Path Finding with Rotations

arXiv:2608. 05588v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Lifelong Multi-Agent Path Finding (LMAPF) requires repeatedly planning collision-free paths for agents that continuously receive new goals upon reaching their current ones.

By He Jiang, Jingtian Yan, Yulun Zhang, Yimin Tang, Tanishq Duhan, Rishi Veerapaneni, Guillaume Sartoretti, Jiaoyang Li