On the Evaluation of Generative Robotic Simulations

Due to the difficulty of acquiring extensive real-world data, robot simulation has become crucial for parallel training and sim-to-real transfer, highlighting the importance of scalable simulated robotic tasks. Foundation models have demonstrated impressive capacities in autonomously generating feasible robotic tasks. However, this new paradigm underscores the challenge of adequately evaluating these autonomously generated tasks. To address this, we propose a comprehensive evaluation framework tailored to generative simulations. Our framework segments evaluation into three core aspects: quality, diversity, and generalization. For single-task quality, we evaluate the realism of the generated task and the completeness of the generated trajectories using large language models and vision-language models. In terms of diversity, we measure both task and data diversity through text similarity of task descriptions and world model loss trained on collected task trajectories. For task-level generalization, we assess the zero-shot generalization ability on unseen tasks of a policy trained with multiple generated tasks. Experiments conducted on three representative task generation pipelines demonstrate that the results from our framework are highly consistent with human evaluations, confirming the feasibility and validity of our approach. The findings reveal that while metrics of quality and diversity can be achieved through certain methods, no single approach excels across all metrics, suggesting a need for greater focus on balancing these different metrics. Additionally, our analysis further highlights the common challenge of low generalization capability faced by current works. Our anonymous website: https://sites.google.com/view/evaltasks.

A Physical Layer Security Framework for Integrated Sensing and Semantic Communication Systems

In this paper, we address a physical layer security (PLS) framework for the integrated sensing and semantic communication (ISASC) system, where a multi-antenna dual-function semantic base station serves multiple single-antenna semantic communication users (SCUs) and monitors a malicious sensing target (MST), in the presence of a single-antenna eavesdropper (EVE), with both the MST and EVE aiming to wiretap information from the SCUs' signals. To enhance PLS, we employ joint artificial noise (AN) and dedicated sensing signal (DSS) in addition to wiretap coding. To evaluate the sensing accuracy, we derive the Cramer-Rao bound (CRB) as a function of the communication, sensing, and AN beamforming (BF) vectors. Subsequently, to assess the PLS level of the ISASC system, we determine a closed-form expression for the semantic secrecy rate (SSR). To achieve an optimal trade-off region between these two competing objectives, we formulate a multi-objective optimization problem for the joint design of the BF vectors. We apply semi-definite programming, Gaussian randomization method, and golden-section search techniques to address this problem. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme outperforms baseline schemes, achieving a superior trade-off between SSR and CRB.

Estimating Body and Hand Motion in an Ego-sensed World

We present EgoAllo, a system for human motion estimation from a head-mounted device. Using only egocentric SLAM poses and images, EgoAllo guides sampling from a conditional diffusion model to estimate 3D body pose, height, and hand parameters that capture the wearer's actions in the allocentric coordinate frame of the scene. To achieve this, our key insight is in representation: we propose spatial and temporal invariance criteria for improving model performance, from which we derive a head motion conditioning parameterization that improves estimation by up to 18%. We also show how the bodies estimated by our system can improve the hands: the resulting kinematic and temporal constraints result in over 40% lower hand estimation errors compared to noisy monocular estimates. Project page: https://egoallo.github.io/

Closed-Loop Visuomotor Control with Generative Expectation for Robotic Manipulation

Despite significant progress in robotics and embodied AI in recent years, deploying robots for long-horizon tasks remains a great challenge. Majority of prior arts adhere to an open-loop philosophy and lack real-time feedback, leading to error accumulation and undesirable robustness. A handful of approaches have endeavored to establish feedback mechanisms leveraging pixel-level differences or pre-trained visual representations, yet their efficacy and adaptability have been found to be constrained. Inspired by classic closed-loop control systems, we propose CLOVER, a closed-loop visuomotor control framework that incorporates feedback mechanisms to improve adaptive robotic control. CLOVER consists of a text-conditioned video diffusion model for generating visual plans as reference inputs, a measurable embedding space for accurate error quantification, and a feedback-driven controller that refines actions from feedback and initiates replans as needed. Our framework exhibits notable advancement in real-world robotic tasks and achieves state-of-the-art on CALVIN benchmark, improving by 8% over previous open-loop counterparts. Code and checkpoints are maintained at https://github.com/OpenDriveLab/CLOVER.

Diffusion Models Learn Low-Dimensional Distributions via Subspace Clustering

Recent empirical studies have demonstrated that diffusion models can effectively learn the image distribution and generate new samples. Remarkably, these models can achieve this even with a small number of training samples despite a large image dimension, circumventing the curse of dimensionality. In this work, we provide theoretical insights into this phenomenon by leveraging key empirical observations: (i) the low intrinsic dimensionality of image data, (ii) a union of manifold structure of image data, and (iii) the low-rank property of the denoising autoencoder in trained diffusion models. These observations motivate us to assume the underlying data distribution of image data as a mixture of low-rank Gaussians and to parameterize the denoising autoencoder as a low-rank model according to the score function of the assumed distribution. With these setups, we rigorously show that optimizing the training loss of diffusion models is equivalent to solving the canonical subspace clustering problem over the training samples. Based on this equivalence, we further show that the minimal number of samples required to learn the underlying distribution scales linearly with the intrinsic dimensions under the above data and model assumptions. This insight sheds light on why diffusion models can break the curse of dimensionality and exhibit the phase transition in learning distributions. Moreover, we empirically establish a correspondence between the subspaces and the semantic representations of image data, facilitating image editing. We validate these results with corroborated experimental results on both simulated distributions and image datasets.

Fast Iterative ELAA-MIMO Detection Exploiting Static Channel Components

Extremely large aperture array (ELAA) is a promising multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technique for next generation mobile networks. In this paper, we propose two novel approaches to accelerate the convergence of current iterative MIMO detectors in ELAA channels. Our approaches exploit the static components of the ELAA channel, which include line of sight (LoS) paths and deterministic non-LoS (NLoS) components due to channel hardening effects. This paper proposes novel convergence acceleration techniques for fast iterative ELAA-MIMO detection by leveraging the static channel component, including the LoS paths and deterministic NLoS components that arise due to channel hardening. Specifically, these static channel components are utilized in two ways: as preconditioning matrices for general iterative algorithms, and as initialization for quasi-Newton (QN) methods. Simulation results show that the proposed approaches converge significantly faster compared to current iterative MIMO detectors, especially under strong LoS conditions with high Rician K-factor. Furthermore, QN methods with the proposed initialization matrix consistently achieve the best convergence performance while maintaining low complexity.

Accelerating Iteratively Linear Detectors in Multi-User (ELAA-)MIMO Systems with UW-SVD

Current iterative multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) detectors suffer from slow convergence when the wireless channel is ill-conditioned. The ill-conditioning is mainly caused by spatial correlation between channel columns corresponding to the same user equipment, known as intra-user interference. In addition, in the emerging MIMO systems using an extremely large aperture array (ELAA), spatial non-stationarity can make the channel even more ill-conditioned. In this paper, user-wise singular value decomposition (UW-SVD) is proposed to accelerate the convergence of iterative MIMO detectors. Its basic principle is to perform SVD on each user's sub-channel matrix to eliminate intra-user interference. Then, the MIMO signal model is effectively transformed into an equivalent signal (e-signal) model, comprising an e-channel matrix and an e-signal vector. Existing iterative algorithms can be used to recover the e-signal vector, which undergoes post-processing to obtain the signal vector. It is proven that the e-channel matrix is better conditioned than the original MIMO channel for spatially correlated (ELAA-)MIMO channels. This implies that UW-SVD can accelerate current iterative algorithms, which is confirmed by our simulation results. Specifically, it can speed up convergence by up to 10 times in both uncoded and coded systems.

Lessons from Learning to Spin "Pens"

In-hand manipulation of pen-like objects is an important skill in our daily lives, as many tools such as hammers and screwdrivers are similarly shaped. However, current learning-based methods struggle with this task due to a lack of high-quality demonstrations and the significant gap between simulation and the real world. In this work, we push the boundaries of learning-based in-hand manipulation systems by demonstrating the capability to spin pen-like objects. We first use reinforcement learning to train an oracle policy with privileged information and generate a high-fidelity trajectory dataset in simulation. This serves two purposes: 1) pre-training a sensorimotor policy in simulation; 2) conducting open-loop trajectory replay in the real world. We then fine-tune the sensorimotor policy using these real-world trajectories to adapt it to the real world dynamics. With less than 50 trajectories, our policy learns to rotate more than ten pen-like objects with different physical properties for multiple revolutions. We present a comprehensive analysis of our design choices and share the lessons learned during development.

Wi-Fi Beyond Communications: Experimental Evaluation of Respiration Monitoring and Motion Detection Using COTS Devices

Wi-Fi sensing has become an attractive option for non-invasive monitoring of human activities and vital signs. This paper explores the feasibility of using state-of-the-art commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) devices for Wi-Fi sensing applications, particularly respiration monitoring and motion detection. We utilize the Intel AX210 network interface card (NIC) to transmit Wi-Fi signals in both 2.4 GHz and 6 GHz frequency bands. Our experiments rely on channel frequency response (CFR) and received signal strength indicator (RSSI) data, which are processed using a moving average algorithm to extract human behavior patterns. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in capturing and representing human respiration and motion patterns. Furthermore, we compare the performance of Wi-Fi sensing across different frequency bands, highlighting the advantages of using higher frequencies for improved sensitivity and clarity. Our findings showcase the practicality of using COTS devices for Wi-Fi sensing and lay the groundwork for the development of non-invasive, contactless sensing systems. These systems have potential applications in various fields, including healthcare, smart homes, and Metaverse.

Semantic-Aware Power Allocation for Generative Semantic Communications with Foundation Models

Recent advancements in diffusion models have made a significant breakthrough in generative modeling. The combination of the generative model and semantic communication (SemCom) enables high-fidelity semantic information exchange at ultra-low rates. A novel generative SemCom framework for image tasks is proposed, wherein pre-trained foundation models serve as semantic encoders and decoders for semantic feature extractions and image regenerations, respectively. The mathematical relationship between the transmission reliability and the perceptual quality of the regenerated image and the semantic values of semantic features are modeled, which are obtained by conducting numerical simulations on the Kodak dataset. We also investigate the semantic-aware power allocation problem, with the objective of minimizing the total power consumption while guaranteeing semantic performance. To solve this problem, two semanticaware power allocation methods are proposed by constraint decoupling and bisection search, respectively. Numerical results show that the proposed semantic-aware methods demonstrate superior performance compared to the conventional one in terms of total power consumption.