Kinematics-Aware Diffusion Policy with Consistent 3D Observation and Action Space for Whole-Arm Robotic Manipulation

Whole-body control of robotic manipulators with awareness of full-arm kinematics is crucial for many manipulation scenarios involving body collision avoidance or body-object interactions, which makes it insufficient to consider only the end-effector poses in policy learning. The typical approach for whole-arm manipulation is to learn actions in the robot's joint space. However, the unalignment between the joint space and actual task space (i.e., 3D space) increases the complexity of policy learning, as generalization in task space requires the policy to intrinsically understand the non-linear arm kinematics, which is difficult to learn from limited demonstrations. To address this issue, this letter proposes a kinematics-aware imitation learning framework with consistent task, observation, and action spaces, all represented in the same 3D space. Specifically, we represent both robot states and actions using a set of 3D points on the arm body, naturally aligned with the 3D point cloud observations. This spatially consistent representation improves the policy's sample efficiency and spatial generalizability while enabling full-body control. Built upon the diffusion policy, we further incorporate kinematics priors into the diffusion processes to guarantee the kinematic feasibility of output actions. The joint angle commands are finally calculated through an optimization-based whole-body inverse kinematics solver for execution. Simulation and real-world experimental results demonstrate higher success rates and stronger spatial generalizability of our approach compared to existing methods in body-aware manipulation policy learning.

UniStateDLO: Unified Generative State Estimation and Tracking of Deformable Linear Objects Under Occlusion for Constrained Manipulation

Perception of deformable linear objects (DLOs), such as cables, ropes, and wires, is the cornerstone for successful downstream manipulation. Although vision-based methods have been extensively explored, they remain highly vulnerable to occlusions that commonly arise in constrained manipulation environments due to surrounding obstacles, large and varying deformations, and limited viewpoints. Moreover, the high dimensionality of the state space, the lack of distinctive visual features, and the presence of sensor noises further compound the challenges of reliable DLO perception. To address these open issues, this paper presents UniStateDLO, the first complete DLO perception pipeline with deep-learning methods that achieves robust performance under severe occlusion, covering both single-frame state estimation and cross-frame state tracking from partial point clouds. Both tasks are formulated as conditional generative problems, leveraging the strong capability of diffusion models to capture the complex mapping between highly partial observations and high-dimensional DLO states. UniStateDLO effectively handles a wide range of occlusion patterns, including initial occlusion, self-occlusion, and occlusion caused by multiple objects. In addition, it exhibits strong data efficiency as the entire network is trained solely on a large-scale synthetic dataset, enabling zero-shot sim-to-real generalization without any real-world training data. Comprehensive simulation and real-world experiments demonstrate that UniStateDLO outperforms all state-of-the-art baselines in both estimation and tracking, producing globally smooth yet locally precise DLO state predictions in real time, even under substantial occlusions. Its integration as the front-end module in a closed-loop DLO manipulation system further demonstrates its ability to support stable feedback control in complex, constrained 3-D environments.

HiGS: Hierarchical Generative Scene Framework for Multi-Step Associative Semantic Spatial Composition

Three-dimensional scene generation holds significant potential in gaming, film, and virtual reality. However, most existing methods adopt a single-step generation process, making it difficult to balance scene complexity with minimal user input. Inspired by the human cognitive process in scene modeling, which progresses from global to local, focuses on key elements, and completes the scene through semantic association, we propose HiGS, a hierarchical generative framework for multi-step associative semantic spatial composition. HiGS enables users to iteratively expand scenes by selecting key semantic objects, offering fine-grained control over regions of interest while the model completes peripheral areas automatically. To support structured and coherent generation, we introduce the Progressive Hierarchical Spatial-Semantic Graph (PHiSSG), which dynamically organizes spatial relationships and semantic dependencies across the evolving scene structure. PHiSSG ensures spatial and geometric consistency throughout the generation process by maintaining a one-to-one mapping between graph nodes and generated objects and supporting recursive layout optimization. Experiments demonstrate that HiGS outperforms single-stage methods in layout plausibility, style consistency, and user preference, offering a controllable and extensible paradigm for efficient 3D scene construction.

Analyzing Key Objectives in Human-to-Robot Retargeting for Dexterous Manipulation

Kinematic retargeting from human hands to robot hands is essential for transferring dexterity from humans to robots in manipulation teleoperation and imitation learning. However, due to mechanical differences between human and robot hands, completely reproducing human motions on robot hands is impossible. Existing works on retargeting incorporate various optimization objectives, focusing on different aspects of hand configuration. However, the lack of experimental comparative studies leaves the significance and effectiveness of these objectives unclear. This work aims to analyze these retargeting objectives for dexterous manipulation through extensive real-world comparative experiments. Specifically, we propose a comprehensive retargeting objective formulation that integrates intuitively crucial factors appearing in recent approaches. The significance of each factor is evaluated through experimental ablation studies on the full objective in kinematic posture retargeting and real-world teleoperated manipulation tasks. Experimental results and conclusions provide valuable insights for designing more accurate and effective retargeting algorithms for real-world dexterous manipulation.

Robust Model-Based In-Hand Manipulation with Integrated Real-Time Motion-Contact Planning and Tracking

Robotic dexterous in-hand manipulation, where multiple fingers dynamically make and break contact, represents a step toward human-like dexterity in real-world robotic applications. Unlike learning-based approaches that rely on large-scale training or extensive data collection for each specific task, model-based methods offer an efficient alternative. Their online computing nature allows for ready application to new tasks without extensive retraining. However, due to the complexity of physical contacts, existing model-based methods encounter challenges in efficient online planning and handling modeling errors, which limit their practical applications. To advance the effectiveness and robustness of model-based contact-rich in-hand manipulation, this paper proposes a novel integrated framework that mitigates these limitations. The integration involves two key aspects: 1) integrated real-time planning and tracking achieved by a hierarchical structure; and 2) joint optimization of motions and contacts achieved by integrated motion-contact modeling. Specifically, at the high level, finger motion and contact force references are jointly generated using contact-implicit model predictive control. The high-level module facilitates real-time planning and disturbance recovery. At the low level, these integrated references are concurrently tracked using a hand force-motion model and actual tactile feedback. The low-level module compensates for modeling errors and enhances the robustness of manipulation. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our approach outperforms existing model-based methods in terms of accuracy, robustness, and real-time performance. Our method successfully completes five challenging tasks in real-world environments, even under appreciable external disturbances.

Robotic In-Hand Manipulation for Large-Range Precise Object Movement: The RGMC Champion Solution

In-hand manipulation using multiple dexterous fingers is a critical robotic skill that can reduce the reliance on large arm motions, thereby saving space and energy. This letter focuses on in-grasp object movement, which refers to manipulating an object to a desired pose through only finger motions within a stable grasp. The key challenge lies in simultaneously achieving high precision and large-range movements while maintaining a constant stable grasp. To address this problem, we propose a simple and practical approach based on kinematic trajectory optimization with no need for pretraining or object geometries, which can be easily applied to novel objects in real-world scenarios. Adopting this approach, we won the championship for the in-hand manipulation track at the 9th Robotic Grasping and Manipulation Competition (RGMC) held at ICRA 2024. Implementation details, discussion, and further quantitative experimental results are presented in this letter, which aims to comprehensively evaluate our approach and share our key takeaways from the competition. Supplementary materials including video and code are available at https://rgmc-xl-team.github.io/ingrasp_manipulation .

A Unified Interaction Control Framework for Safe Robotic Ultrasound Scanning with Human-Intention-Aware Compliance

The ultrasound scanning robot operates in environments where frequent human-robot interactions occur. Most existing control methods for ultrasound scanning address only one specific interaction situation or implement hard switches between controllers for different situations, which compromises both safety and efficiency. In this paper, we propose a unified interaction control framework for ultrasound scanning robots capable of handling all common interactions, distinguishing both human-intended and unintended types, and adapting with appropriate compliance. Specifically, the robot suspends or modulates its ongoing main task if the interaction is intended, e.g., when the doctor grasps the robot to lead the end effector actively. Furthermore, it can identify unintended interactions and avoid potential collision in the null space beforehand. Even if that collision has happened, it can become compliant with the collision in the null space and try to reduce its impact on the main task (where the scan is ongoing) kinematically and dynamically. The multiple situations are integrated into a unified controller with a smooth transition to deal with the interactions by exhibiting human-intention-aware compliance. Experimental results validate the framework's ability to cope with all common interactions including intended intervention and unintended collision in a collaborative carotid artery ultrasound scanning task.

In-Hand Following of Deformable Linear Objects Using Dexterous Fingers with Tactile Sensing

Most research on deformable linear object (DLO) manipulation assumes rigid grasping. However, beyond rigid grasping and re-grasping, in-hand following is also an essential skill that humans use to dexterously manipulate DLOs, which requires continuously changing the grasp point by in-hand sliding while holding the DLO to prevent it from falling. Achieving such a skill is very challenging for robots without using specially designed but not versatile end-effectors. Previous works have attempted using generic parallel grippers, but their robustness is unsatisfactory owing to the conflict between following and holding, which is hard to balance with a one-degree-of-freedom gripper. In this work, inspired by how humans use fingers to follow DLOs, we explore the usage of a generic dexterous hand with tactile sensing to imitate human skills and achieve robust in-hand DLO following. To enable the hardware system to function in the real world, we develop a framework that includes Cartesian-space arm-hand control, tactile-based in-hand 3-D DLO pose estimation, and task-specific motion design. Experimental results demonstrate the significant superiority of our method over using parallel grippers, as well as its great robustness, generalizability, and efficiency.

Contact-Implicit Model Predictive Control for Dexterous In-hand Manipulation: A Long-Horizon and Robust Approach

Dexterous in-hand manipulation is an essential skill of production and life. Nevertheless, the highly stiff and mutable features of contacts cause limitations to real-time contact discovery and inference, which degrades the performance of model-based methods. Inspired by recent advancements in contact-rich locomotion and manipulation, this paper proposes a novel model-based approach to control dexterous in-hand manipulation and overcome the current limitations. The proposed approach has the attractive feature, which allows the robot to robustly execute long-horizon in-hand manipulation without pre-defined contact sequences or separated planning procedures. Specifically, we design a contact-implicit model predictive controller at high-level to generate real-time contact plans, which are executed by the low-level tracking controller. Compared with other model-based methods, such a long-horizon feature enables replanning and robust execution of contact-rich motions to achieve large-displacement in-hand tasks more efficiently; Compared with existing learning-based methods, the proposed approach achieves the dexterity and also generalizes to different objects without any pre-training. Detailed simulations and ablation studies demonstrate the efficiency and effectiveness of our method. It runs at 20Hz on the 23-degree-of-freedom long-horizon in-hand object rotation task.

Generalizable whole-body global manipulation of deformable linear objects by dual-arm robot in 3-D constrained environments

Constrained environments are common in practical applications of manipulating deformable linear objects (DLOs), where movements of both DLOs and robots should be constrained. This task is high-dimensional and highly constrained owing to the highly deformable DLOs, dual-arm robots with high degrees of freedom, and 3-D complex environments, which render global planning challenging. Furthermore, accurate DLO models needed by planning are often unavailable owing to their strong nonlinearity and diversity, resulting in unreliable planned paths. This article focuses on the global moving and shaping of DLOs in constrained environments by dual-arm robots. The main objectives are 1) to efficiently and accurately accomplish this task, and 2) to achieve generalizable and robust manipulation of various DLOs. To this end, we propose a complementary framework with whole-body planning and control using appropriate DLO model representations. First, a global planner is proposed to efficiently find feasible solutions based on a simplified DLO energy model, which considers the full system states and all constraints to plan more reliable paths. Then, a closed-loop manipulation scheme is proposed to compensate for the modeling errors and enhance the robustness and accuracy, which incorporates a model predictive controller that real-time adjusts the robot motion based on an adaptive DLO motion model. The key novelty is that our framework can efficiently solve the high-dimensional problem subject to multiple constraints and generalize to various DLOs without elaborate model identifications. Experiments demonstrate that our framework can accomplish considerably more complicated tasks than existing works, with significantly higher efficiency, generalizability, and reliability.