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 storiesGDLAM: Group-Disentangled Latent Action Model for Highly Disentangled Embodied Pretraining
arXiv:2609.26118v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Latent action models (LAMs) learn action-related representations from action-free videos via self-supervised fut…
Vision-Language Models as copilots for Autonomous UAV Navigation: Analysis of Latency and Reliability in Degraded Environments
arXiv:2609.26084v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The integration of Vision-Language Models (VLMs) in autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offers unpreceden…
Underwater Navigation in Unsteady Flows Using Measurement Histories from a Single Sensing Unit
arXiv:2609.26753v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Spatial flow measurements support underwater navigation, but distributed sensing is constrained by robot size an…
\phi-RIE: From Photorealistic Reconstruction to Interactive Environments
arXiv:2609.26795v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) can reconstruct a captured scene photorealistically, but the resulting representati…
Designing Task-Induced Arousal: A Multimodal Stress Induction Method for Interactive Experiments
arXiv:2609.26156v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: HCI and HRI studies often require short, repeatable arousal manipulations that can run while participants cont…
Leveraging Vision-Based Point Cloud Map Priors for Camera-Based 3D Object Detection and Online Vectorized HD Mapping
arXiv:2609.26325v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Camera-based 3D object detection and online vectorized HD mapping provide compact scene representations for au…
Spatiotemporal Calibration of Doppler Velocity Logs for Underwater Robots
arXiv:2510.24571v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: The calibration of extrinsic parameters and clock offsets between sensors for high-accuracy performance in u…
NIMO Controller: a self-driving laboratory orchestrator based on the Model Context Protocol
arXiv:2605.15227v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Self-driving laboratories (SDLs) are attracting increasing attention as a means of accelerating scient…
Variable-Resolution Virtual Maps for Autonomous Exploration with Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs)
arXiv:2603.22667v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Autonomous exploration by unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in near-shore waters requires reliable localisati…
MicroPush: A Lightweight Simulator for Sim-to-Real Microrobotic Pushing and Assembly
arXiv:2602.23607v2 Announce Type: replace Abstract: Developing learning-based autonomy for microrobotic manipulation is difficult because physical trials are sl…
First Experimental Demonstration of Natural Hovering Extremum Seeking: A New Paradigm in Flapping Flight Physics
arXiv:2508.20836v4 Announce Type: replace Abstract: In this article, we report the first attempt of experimental validation of the recently emerged new paradigm…
Vision Foundation Models with Synthetic-Only Training for Monocular Spacecraft Pose Estimation
arXiv:2609.26561v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: We present an improvement on previous spacecraft pose estimation architectures that results in the lowest publ…
Minimal Recurrent Behavioral Memory for Imitation under Partial Observability
arXiv:2609.25757v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: What is the least recurrent memory needed to reproduce a specified expert under partial observability? The ins…
Higher-Order Approximation of Exit Functionals in Sampling-Based Stochastic Model Predictive Control
arXiv:2609.25257v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Safety evaluation in sampling-based stochastic model predictive control often requires numerical estimation of…
RouteRLT: Learning When and Which RL Specialist Should Control a Vision-Language-Action Policy
arXiv:2609.26467v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Vision-language-action (VLA) models provide broad manipulation competence, but often struggle during the precisi…
Dr-LiSA: Direct Radar-Lidar Scan Alignment for $SE(3)$ Localization
arXiv:2609.26423v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: This paper introduces Dr-LiSA, a first-of-its-kind direct method for localizing 2D spinning radar intensity meas…
MAVP: Map-Aware Visuomotor Policies for Mobile Manipulation
arXiv:2609.26378v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Successful mobile manipulation requires coordinated base and arm motion while maintaining accurate spatial posit…
Hierarchical Floorplan-Guided Vision-Language Exploration for Embodied Question Answering
arXiv:2609.26360v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Embodied Question Answering (EQA) requires an agent to explore a previously unseen environment, gather relevant …
TriWorldBench: A Tri-View Consistency Perspective on Embodied World Models
arXiv:2609.26314v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Embodied world models predict the outcomes of robot actions to support learning and planning. For robots equippe…
Manipulation of Deformable Linear Objects Using Model Predictive Path Integral Control with Bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory Learning
arXiv:2609.26238v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: The manipulation of Deformable Linear Objects (DLOs) such as cables poses a significant challenge for automation…
Safety-Constrained Model Predictive Control for an Omnidirectional Walking Assistive Robot Using Control Barrier Function
arXiv:2609.25994v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Providing safe and effective mobility assistance plays a crucial role in restoring independence and enhancing th…
Predict Before You Step: Auditable Occupancy Forecasting for Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance under Sparse Guidance
arXiv:2609.25969v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Legged robots under sparse waypoint guidance must avoid moving obstacles using partial, rapidly changing LiDAR o…
Unsigned Distance Maps on 2D Point Cloud Registration
arXiv:2609.25932v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: 2D point cloud registration arises in laser odometry and Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for mobile…
Control Barrier Functions for Safe Free-Flying Robotic Spacecraft Operations in Tumbling Target Capture
arXiv:2609.25905v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: This paper presents a modular control barrier function (CBF) framework for safe free-flying robotic spacecraft o…
You Should Be Properly Scoring Your Odometry
arXiv:2609.25900v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: When we evaluate the performance of our odometry, it is common practice to score the estimated track against a g…
Beyond Reconstruction Error: Analytical and Data-Driven Action Tokenization for Autoregressive Vision-Language-Action Models
arXiv:2609.25820v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Discrete action tokenization is central to autoregressive vision-language-action (VLA) models, yet action repres…
What is the Better Curriculum: Controller-Shaped Grasping Behavior for Contact Force-Sensitive Manipulation
arXiv:2609.25887v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: How should a robot learn to manipulate objects so fragile that sub-Newton contact forces can cause irreversible …
VisForce: Visual Grounding of Current and Desired Forces for Goal-Conditioned Dexterous Manipulation
arXiv:2609.25785v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models have emerged as general-purpose robotic manipulation policies. However, in d…
Learning from Humans for Proactive Assistance in Human-Robot Collaborative Transport
arXiv:2609.25351v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We focus on human-robot collaborative transport, a challenging task of broad relevance spanning logistics, manuf…
Capability-Aware Arbitration for Semantic Intent-Based Shared Control
arXiv:2609.25369v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Shared control often allocates robot authority based on confidence in inferred human intent, assuming reliable a…