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robotics

1,589 papers

#machine learning Preprint Oct 2026

Reachability-Aware Diffusion Policy Optimization

Diffusion policies provide expressive action distributions for continuous-control reinforcement learning. However, safety-aware online diffusion policy optimization remains underexplored, particularly methods that use predictive reachability information without an explicit dynamics model. We propose Reachability-Aware...

Hikmet Simsir, Kutay Demiray, Ozgur S. Oguz · 0 citations
#machine learning Preprint Open access Oct 2026

Beyond In-Distribution Preservation: Recovering Generalization in Quantized VLAs via Vulnerability-Oriented Tuning

Post-training quantization has been shown to preserve VLA performance under standard evaluation conditions, but whether it preserves the full-precision model's robustness and generalization remains underexplored. In this study, we systematically study the robustness and generalization of post-quantized VLA policies und...

Shen Ruan, Wenchang Gao, Jin Wang et al. · 0 citations
#artificial intelligence Preprint Open access Oct 2026

Behavior Uncloning: Distilling Mode Redirection into Policy Weights without Inference-Time Steering

Behavior-cloned policies often learn multiple behavior modes from demonstration datasets, including modes that are unsafe or otherwise undesired at deployment. For example, a policy trained on diverse handover demonstrations may learn to pass a knife blade-first. Standard remedies such as data curation and inference-ti...

Hao Wang, Jiuzhou Lei, Dayou Li et al. · 0 citations
#artificial intelligence Preprint Open access Oct 2026

Premover: Fast Vision-Language-Action Control via Early Execution During Instruction Delivery

Vision-Language-Action (VLA) policies are typically evaluated under the assumption that the robot starts acting only after the user has finished typing or speaking. In real interactions, however, entering an instruction can take several seconds, leaving the policy idle for a substantial fraction of the interaction. Par...

Joonha Park, Jiseung Jeong, Taesik Gong · 0 citations
#artificial intelligence Preprint Open access Oct 2026

You've Got a Golden Ticket: Improving Generative Robot Policies With A Single Noise Vector

Generative robot policies trained on demonstrations using behavior cloning often learn actions that are sub-optimal or misaligned with respect to the downstream task. Policy improvement approaches aim to bridge this gap and improve the cumulative reward with minimal interventions on the pre-trained policy. However, an...

Omkar Patil, Ondrej Biza, Thomas Weng et al. · 0 citations
#artificial intelligence Preprint Open access Oct 2026

Same Pieces, Different Servers: A Tetris Benchmark for AI Agents as Served

An agent meets a model as served: through an endpoint with a price card, a shared cache and other tenants, or on whatever hardware a self-hosted model runs. Benchmarks rank the weights. We introduce a Tetris benchmark that measures what agents get from models as served: every move is scored against an oracle, and every...

Haochuan Wang · 0 citations
#artificial intelligence Preprint Open access Oct 2026

ZeST: an VLM-based Zero-Shot Traversability Navigation for Unknown Environments

The advancement of robotics and autonomous navigation systems hinges on the ability to accurately predict terrain traversability. Traditional methods for generating datasets to train these prediction models often involve putting robots into potentially hazardous environments, posing risks to equipment and safety. To so...

Shreya Gummadi, Mateus V. Gasparino, Gianluca Capezzuto et al. · 0 citations
#artificial intelligence Preprint Open access Oct 2026

Graph-Based Floor Separation Using Node Embeddings and Clustering of WiFi Trajectories

Vertical localization, particularly floor separation, remains a major challenge in indoor positioning systems operating in GPS-denied multistory environments. This paper proposes a fully data-driven, graph-based framework for blind floor separation using only Wi-Fi fingerprint trajectories, without requiring prior buil...

Rabia Yasa Kostas, Kahraman Kostas · 0 citations
#artificial intelligence Preprint Open access Oct 2026

A Survey of Robotic Navigation and Manipulation with Physics Simulators in the Era of Embodied AI

Navigation and manipulation are core capabilities in Embodied AI, but training agents to perform them directly in the real world is costly, time-consuming, and unsafe. Therefore, sim-to-real transfer has emerged as a key approach, yet the sim-to-real gap persists. This survey examines how physics simulators address thi...

Lik Hang Kenny Wong, Xueyang Kang, Kaixin Bai et al. · 0 citations
#artificial intelligence Preprint Open access Oct 2026

Robotic Long-Horizon Manipulation with Bayesian Non-parametric Skill Priors

Long-horizon manipulation under sparse rewards remains challenging for reinforcement learning due to delayed feedback and inefficient exploration. Existing skill-based approaches often assume a fixed parametric prior (e.g., a single Gaussian), limiting their ability to capture diverse and multi-modal skill structures r...

Yuan Meng, Xiangtong Yao, Yansong Wu et al. · 0 citations
#artificial intelligence Preprint Open access Oct 2026

Robotic Long-Horizon Manipulation with Progressive In-Context Code Generation and Episodic Feedback

Robotic long-horizon manipulation requires robots to compose perception, reasoning, and action over extended task sequences, yet existing language-conditioned frameworks often rely on dense step-wise feedback, learned action policies, or unstructured prompting, which limits robustness and generalization. We propose DAH...

Yuan Meng, Xiangtong Yao, Haihui Ye et al. · 0 citations
#artificial intelligence Preprint Open access Oct 2026

Screw Geometry Meets Bandits: Incremental Acquisition of Demonstrations to Generate Manipulation Plans

In this paper, we study the problem of methodically obtaining a sufficient set of kinesthetic demonstrations, one at a time, such that a robot can be confident of its ability to perform a complex manipulation task in a given region of its workspace. Although programming by demonstration has been an active area of resea...

Dibyendu Das, Aditya Patankar, Nilanjan Chakraborty et al. · 0 citations

From tech blogs

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MIT News · Artificial Intelligence Nov 5, 2026

Clearing up a robot’s fuzzy memory

A new system identifies and corrects unreliable object descriptions stored in a robot’s memory, improving the robot’s ability to interact with its environment.

Google DeepMind Blog Oct 13, 2026

Gemini 4 Argon for Robotics

Discover Gemini 4 Argon for robotics: leading the ERQA benchmark with physical reasoning, zero-shot control, Real2Sim, and agentic workflows.

Microsoft Research Blog Sep 23, 2026

Offloaded inference for real-world physical AI robotics

Robots are getting smarter, but how can their hardware match that growth? New Microsoft Research findings show that moving AI inference beyond the robot can improve task success, boost efficiency, and support more advanced physical AI workloads. The post Offloaded inference for real-world physical AI robotics appeared first on Microsoft Research.

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