Research
Frontier robotics research: arXiv cs.RO papers, embodied AI, VLA models, manipulation, navigation and learning systems.
Frontier robotics research: arXiv cs.RO papers, embodied AI, VLA models, manipulation, navigation and learning systems.
Latest in Research
6171 storiesHumanoid Whole-Body Badminton via an Annealed Reinforcement Learning Curriculum
arXiv:2511.11218v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Humanoid robots have demonstrated strong capabilities for interacting with static scenes across locomotion a…
Freeze, Share, Shrink: Rethinking the Action Backbone in Diffusion Policies
arXiv:2511.12101v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Many recent Vision-Language-Action models employ diffusion or flow-matching backbones with hundreds of milli…
Multi-Domain Motion Embedding: Expressive Real-Time Mimicry for Legged Robots
arXiv:2512.07673v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Effective motion representation is crucial for enabling robots to imitate expressive behaviors in real time,…
CREPES-X: Hierarchical Bearing-Distance-Inertial Direct Cooperative Relative Pose Estimation System
arXiv:2512.24688v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Relative localization is essential for cooperation in autonomous multi-robot systems. Existing approaches ei…
An LLM-Agnostic, MAVLink-Based Drone Command and Control Interface and Agentic Harness Using the Model Context Protocol
arXiv:2601.15486v3 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Artificial intelligence integrated with drone command and control (physical AI) offers a route to autonomy t…
Learning Human-Like Badminton Skills for Humanoid Robots
arXiv:2602.08370v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Realizing versatile and human-like performance in high-demand sports like badminton remains a formidable cha…
Safety-Critical Control for Smoothed Implicit Contact Dynamics
arXiv:2605.21138v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Smoothed implicit contact dynamics enables gradient-based planning and control for contact-rich tasks withou…
OVMAN: A Task and Benchmark for Open-Vocabulary Motion-Aware Navigation
arXiv:2609.06424v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Homes change between a robot's visits. Navigation benchmarks pose their goals in the world the agent current…
Privileged observations enable rapid and reliable policy discovery directly in the physical world
arXiv:2512.08463v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: We study how privileged information about a physical system affects the discovery of high-performing p…
High-Density Automated Valet Parking with Relocation-Free Sequential Operations
arXiv:2603.23803v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: In this paper, we present DROP, high-Density Relocation-free sequential OPerations in automated valet …
Robusto-2: Benchmarking Humans & VLMs for Autonomous Driving in Lima & New York City
arXiv:2606.20980v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: As Self-Driving Cars continue to expand internationally and use multi-modal systems such as VLMs as a …
Constraint-Grounded Reinforcement Learning for Variable Impedance Control in Contact-Rich Robotic Insertion
arXiv:2609.13516v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: In robotic insertion under uncertain contact, the axial force limit and the appropriate controller gain vary acr…
IMM-based Multiple Object Tracking using a State Prediction Neural Network
arXiv:2609.13307v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Object tracking is essential for autonomous vehicles to avoid obstacles and plan routes. Radar maintains detecti…
Conflict-Predictive Variable Horizons in Multi-Drone Distributed Model Predictive Control
arXiv:2609.13270v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: In distributed model predictive control for multi-drone collision avoidance, a fixed prediction horizon forces a…
Report covers advances in surgical robots, deploying warehouse automation in the real world
Learn from a surgical robotics case study and a discussion of how to best deploy mobile robots in the warehouse in this issue. The post Report covers advances i…
Why RaaS needs more than a subscription model
At RoboBusiness 2026, a panel of robotics business leaders will examine the practical playbook behind Robots-as-a-Service or RaaS offerings. The post Why RaaS n…
MoPA: Coordinated Mobile Manipulation via Subsystem-Specific Perception Alignment
arXiv:2609.12081v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Mobile manipulation requires perceptual evidence at different spatial scales for base motion and arm control, wh…
Uncertainty-Aware Conflict Detection Against Operator-Conditioned Weather Hazards
arXiv:2609.12095v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Strategic flight plan validation in Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) environments requires robust methods for predict…
RodForesight: A World Model Enhanced Diffusion Policy for Slender and Material Agnostic Rod Insertion
arXiv:2609.12103v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Slender rod insertion arises in precision manufacturing, where millimetre scale diameter and tight clearances de…
Multi-Objective Agent-Based Model Predictive Controller for Plug-and-Play Vehicle Control
arXiv:2609.12108v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Functional integration is a growing trend in vehicle control, often involving the coordination of multiple contr…
A Data-Driven Distributed Control Scheme: Learning Multi-Objective Agent-Based MPC for Path-Tracking
arXiv:2609.12142v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Agent-based model predictive control (AMPC) has recently been proposed for vehicle systems with various controll…
DIA: Denoising Intermediate Advantage for Diffusion Policy Optimization
arXiv:2609.12245v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Diffusion-based robot policies have become widely used in robotic manipulation, where they are typically trained…
Mission Performance: Automatic and Adaptive Race Pace Progression for Autonomous Racing
arXiv:2609.12292v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: In this paper, we describe the Mission Performance module implemented for a fully autonomous racing car to autom…
DWMP: Leveraging Dual World Models for Humanoid Obstacle Traversal
arXiv:2609.12347v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Humanoid robots must traverse cluttered obstacle fields using onboard proprioceptive and visual observations, ye…
A Deployable Architecture for Robot-Mediated Tasks (DART): Evaluation in Socially Assistive Robot-Guided Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Exercises
arXiv:2609.12349v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Socially assistive robots (SARs) can support structured health and well-being interventions, but hardware and co…
READ: Learning Risk-Informed Fields for End-to-End Autonomous Driving
arXiv:2609.12371v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Autonomous driving requires more than recognizing what is present in a scene: a planner must determine how road …
Understanding Whole-Body Robot Teleoperation Strategies Under Diverse Task Objectives and Constraints
arXiv:2609.12384v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: This work investigates the control strategies of complex whole-body robot teleoperation that coordinate active p…
IMPLY: Physically Anchored Consistency for World-Model Rollouts
arXiv:2609.12441v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: A world model asked what happens if an object is pushed at several speeds produces several futures. If the model…
Communication-Constrained Multi-Robot Exploration With Adaptive Communication Windows
arXiv:2609.12502v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Exploring unknown environments with multi-robot teams can improve efficiency by allowing robots to explore in pa…
Autonomous Precision Milling of Biological Structures via Generic Anatomical Priors and Active Boundary Perception
arXiv:2609.12530v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Autonomous precision milling of biological structures is challenged by incomplete knowledge of target geometry, …