News & Research

arXiv:2610.01943v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Robotic simulation and virtual reality increasingly require object assets that capture not only visual geometry but also the physical cues underlying tactile and thermal interaction. Existing 3D datasets and reconstruction methods primarily represent object-scale geometry and visual appearance, overlooking microscale surface structure for high-fidelity haptic rendering and transient temperature dynamics for temperature-aware interaction. We present TouchTherm, a framework for constructing simulation-ready visuo-tactile-thermal object assets from real-world objects. For visual and tactile reconstruction, we combine structured-light scanning with multiview normal maps obtained from photometric stereo. The normal maps are registered to the scanned geometry and transformed into tangent space to recover local micro-height fields for optical tactile rendering, while the coarse mesh handles collision detection. For thermal reconstruction, we cap

arXiv:2610.01910v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: All the objects composing our world are enclosed within surfaces. Yet, most robot learning and motion generation frameworks treat surfaces as constraints ignoring their intrinsic geometry. This gap is acute for polyhedral meshes--the standard output of CAD and 3D reconstruction--whose discrete geometric structure remains unexploited. In this paper, we propose a unified discrete Riemannian framework that enables robot learning directly on polyhedral surface meshes. Using discrete differential geometry, we define logarithmic and exponential maps, parallel transport, and ambient-space projections that remain well-defined across faces, edges, and vertices. We instantiate the framework in three learning paradigms: (i) Dynamic Movement Primitives (DMPs), an improved exponential-map computation and a fixed-tangent-cone forcing-term encoding with parallel transport yield better cross-surface generalisation and stability over prior mesh-based appr

arXiv:2610.01906v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Scuba divers are taught to control their depth to avoid rapid ascents and descents, which could result in serious injuries such as gas embolisms and barotrauma. However, many underwater tasks necessitate lateral control, maintaining distance between subsea structures such as coral reefs, submerged drilling instrumentation, or unexploded ordnance. In this work, we discuss a first-of-its-kind wearable robotic solution providing thruster-actuated directional guidance to a diver, as distinct from prior propulsive-assistance exoskeletons. We introduce ``Robotic Assisted Diver Movement in Confined Spaces'' (RADMCS), a wearable robot that assists divers in maintaining a fixed distance from subsea structures by leveraging perception techniques in monocular depth estimation and force-feedback from submersible thrusters to provide haptic feedback. Its small and compact form factor creates a foundational platform that could be expanded to include mo

arXiv:2610.01856v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Vision-language-action (VLA) models unify visual perception, language understanding, and action generation, offering new opportunities for automation in additive manufacturing (AM). However, deployment in AM remains challenging because adapting these models to unseen robot embodiments is costly, and performance can degrade under environment changes. In this work, we present a framework for deploying OpenVLA-OFT on a FAIRINO FR3 robot in a fixed AM workcell. A data pipeline converts monocular real-world demonstrations into OpenVLA-compatible TFDS/RLDS datasets to support adaptation to the FR3 embodiment. At runtime, each inference request predicts an eight-step chunk of 7-D actions. The FR3 executes each chunk open loop before capturing a new observation, providing closed-loop feedback between chunks. The system uses a cloud-edge architecture in which the FR3 client streams observations to a remote inference server through a FastAPI interf

arXiv:2610.01849v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Human hand-object demonstrations offer a reusable source of dexterous robot manipulation data, but transferring them across embodiments requires physically feasible retargeting. Existing physics-based approaches face limitations in retargeting success, motion-specific training efficiency, or both. To address these limitations, we introduce FlashDexRetarget, an RL-based framework for high-success, efficient dexterous motion retargeting. To make the demonstrated interaction easier to learn, we combine object point-cloud observations, hand-object distance features, and future trajectory encodings with complementary rewards that supervise object motion and reference hand-object relationships. To further accelerate learning, we employ separate left- and right-hand actor critic networks and adapt the off-policy algorithm, FlashSAC to dexterous motion tracking. On a benchmark of 50 motions spanning single-object and two-object interactions, Flas

arXiv:2610.01746v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Autonomous driving systems have become a central focus of intelligent transportation research, with End-to-End Learning and Modular Architectures offering two prominent design paradigms for their implementation. E2E Learning uses deep learning algorithms to map raw sensory inputs directly to driving actuators, providing a streamlined and adaptable solution. while Modular Architectures employ a pipeline-based approach, dividing the system into distinct subsystems for perception, cognition, planning, and control. This paper presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of these paradigms, focusing on their strengths, limitations, and trade-offs to provide insights into their suitability for various autonomous driving applications. The study evaluates key factors such as interpretability, scalability, robustness, and real-world applicability. While End-to-End Learning emphasizes simplicity and adaptability in dynamic environments, it lacks t

arXiv:2610.01742v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Equipping artificial agents with spatial intelligence requires a comprehensive generative prior over the dynamic 3D world. We propose World Motion Models (WMMs) that capture "what was, is, and will be where across time" via sparse SE(3) pose trajectories. WMMs are built on the observation that elements of dynamic scenes can be well approximated by a set of rigid SE(3) trajectories, a minimal yet expressive primitive for 4D modeling. This representation unifies articulated objects, human bodies, hand-object interactions, piecewise-rigid scene dynamics, camera motion, and even robot states and actions into a single shared space. Given this representation, we cast the joint distribution of these entities as a flexible sequence modeling problem, utilizing flow-matching with per-token noise levels. Coupled with a context token mechanism for non-sequential conditioning, this formulation supports any-to-any marginal conditioning across an arbitr

arXiv:2610.01726v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Enabling robots to estimate the kinematic parameters of articulated objects unlocks a wide range of capabilities for interaction and manipulation. The estimation has to happen from the information the robot currently observes, often just a single RGB image of an object it has never seen before. Current single-image approaches couple articulation part segmentation with articulation estimation, making their predictions vulnerable to missed detections and incorrect part associations, and they regress metric 3D geometry that a single view fixes only up to scale. We present QueryArt, a model that estimates articulation parameters from a single RGB image, a 2D query point, and camera intrinsics. QueryArt is trained to estimate the 3D articulation geometry relative to the queried point and in units of its depth, which keeps its target identifiable from the image alone. A single depth measurement at the query point then supplies the scale and rec

arXiv:2610.01698v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Active vision manipulation requires a policy to control both its camera and its end-effectors, yet camera motion determines which evidence remains visible within finite observation windows. Acquiring a new view can displace task-critical cues, while retaining a view forgoes potentially useful observations. We formulate this as an evidence-aware retain--acquire problem and present ActiveWAM, a unified world--action model that learns observation and manipulation jointly. To this end, we propose training-time inversion which constrains a frozen video prior by task-bearing source evidence and visible temporal changes, eliminating the need for test-time inversion or candidate ranking. At deployment, the policy generates bimanual and pan/tilt actions-including stay and reacquisition behaviors-from view-aware history, and updates context from newly measured RGB observations. Future-video prediction serves as a co-training signal, while action ge

arXiv:2610.01682v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Mobile robots operating among pedestrians need trajectories that become available quickly, remain spatially credible through missed observations, preserve identity, and fit within an embedded computing budget. Aggregate tracking scores provide limited insight into when and how trajectories fail, while varying detector inputs can confound tracker and detector quality. We present a deployment-focused, tracker-only evaluation protocol that uses shared detections to isolate tracker behavior and directly evaluates initialization, detector-gap continuation, identity recovery, close-neighbor association, and load-dependent tracker-step runtime, while Higher Order Tracking Accuracy (HOTA) is retained as a complementary aggregate measure. We apply the protocol to the JackRabbot Dataset and Benchmark (JRDB) using six open-source trackers and our lightweight Pedestrian Reference Tracker (PedRefTrack), together with a GT-assisted variant that estimat

arXiv:2610.01612v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Continuous legged manipulation requires accurate end-effector tracking while the base keeps walking. Combining reinforcement learning (RL) with model predictive control (MPC) suits this task: the learned policy provides robust locomotion, while MPC coordinates the base and arm to compensate for tracking errors. However, MPC can compensate only for base motion that it can predict, and a learned policy's command response varies with gait phase, contact, and payload. We present ReCo, a framework that couples response-consistent locomotion with policy-aware MPC for legged manipulation. Response shaping trains the policy to respond to commands consistently and repeatably across randomized dynamics. An identified closed-loop response model then lets MPC jointly plan locomotion commands and arm motion. On the simulation benchmark, ReCo reduces position and orientation root-mean-square error (RMSE) by 28.7% and 27.4% relative to the best baseline

arXiv:2610.01559v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: World Action Models (WAMs) predict visual futures and robot actions, yet they remain susceptible to task-incomplete imagination, where plausible, action-consistent predictions omit the transition needed for task completion. In this paper, we show that this failure is not inherent to the world model backbone, but emerges when adapted for short-chunk control, which can repeatedly favor plausible local continuations over task-completing transitions. To address this, we introduce Completion Aware Guidance (CAG), a training-free sampling method that guides generation toward task completion. Across representative WAMs, CAG improves success from 64% to 70% on a RoboTwin 2.0 subset and from 69% to 75% in zero-shot simulation, while reducing task-incomplete imagination from 79% to 40%.

arXiv:2610.01505v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: This report presents the \textbf{OpenSpace Lab}'s solution to the Competition on Intelligent Information Gathering for Single and Multi-Robot Systems Workshops, organized as part of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2026. Our team reached 1st place in the Single-Robot Public Track and 3rd place in both the Single- and Multi-Robot Private Tracks. The single-robot framework utilizes pre-trained map completion predictions for global planning to prioritize unexplored areas. To reconcile map coverage with limited operation time, we introduce a remaining-time-based exploration strategy that integrates homing constraints into the decision-making process. For multi-robot exploration, we utilize a utility-driven target selection strategy that balances observation gains, movement costs, and budget constraints, leveraging shared map and intent data to eliminate redundant search and maximize coordination e

arXiv:2610.01477v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Tracking seasonal change in crops and forests requires observing the same plants repeatedly. Ground robots can do this at close range, and a manipulator gives their sensors more viewpoints. Yet the robots behind long-term field datasets are rarely released with their design files, and how a robot's own structure limits arm reach and occludes its sensors is seldom compared between builds. We present ALFRED, an open-source mobile manipulator built from commercially available components. It carries a six-degree-of-freedom arm, LiDAR, RGB-D cameras, RTK GNSS and an IMU on an Ackermann-steered base, all mounted on a reconfigurable aluminium strut frame, and runs containerised ROS software. It was developed through four builds against six requirements for repeated outdoor deployment: durability, modularity, repairability, sensing reach, endurance and reproducibility. Model-based analysis of the last three builds shows the usable share of the ar

arXiv:2610.01397v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Dynamic humanoid motions such as flips risk hardware damage due to suboptimal policies, disturbances or sim-to-real gaps. A motion tracking policy offers no way out once the maneuver leaves its reference, and a backup policy needs to take over to protect the hardware for a minimum-damage landing. Which backup to use matters as much as when to switch. We present Viability-Aware Policy Selection (VAPS), which treats safety as a policy-conditioned, receding-horizon decision. Besides a protective fall policy, we also train an abort policy which can abort the motion at any time, landing on its feet. At every control step, learned predictors estimate whether the nominal tracking policy and the abort policy remain viable over a short horizon, and a least-sacrificial hierarchy keeps the most task-ambitious behavior that remains viable. In simulation with randomized disturbances, VAPS sharply reduces head contact and hand contact, which are the do