The work gives the first algorithms for general robust Markov games with linear function approximation whose sample complexity breaks the curse of multiagency for large state spaces in both generative and online settings.
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Solving Rubik's Cube with a Robot Hand
Canonical reference. 78% of citing Pith papers cite this work as background.
abstract
We demonstrate that models trained only in simulation can be used to solve a manipulation problem of unprecedented complexity on a real robot. This is made possible by two key components: a novel algorithm, which we call automatic domain randomization (ADR) and a robot platform built for machine learning. ADR automatically generates a distribution over randomized environments of ever-increasing difficulty. Control policies and vision state estimators trained with ADR exhibit vastly improved sim2real transfer. For control policies, memory-augmented models trained on an ADR-generated distribution of environments show clear signs of emergent meta-learning at test time. The combination of ADR with our custom robot platform allows us to solve a Rubik's cube with a humanoid robot hand, which involves both control and state estimation problems. Videos summarizing our results are available: https://openai.com/blog/solving-rubiks-cube/
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representative citing papers
Promptbreeder evolves both task prompts and the mutation prompts that improve them using LLMs, outperforming Chain-of-Thought and Plan-and-Solve on arithmetic and commonsense reasoning benchmarks.
GPT-f, a transformer-based prover for Metamath, generated new short proofs that were accepted into the main library—the first such contribution from a deep-learning system.
CoP tactile representation with differentiable calibration enables zero-shot sim-to-real transfer and outperforms binary and raw-taxel baselines on peg-in-hole insertion and ball balancing with a multi-fingered hand.
A transformer policy distilled from a privileged RL teacher enables 3.1x faster real-world cube rotation on the ORCA hand using solely joint sensor data by extracting implicit object state from temporal joint patterns.
DRATS derives a minimax objective from a feasibility formulation of MTRL to adaptively sample tasks with the largest return gaps, leading to better worst-task performance on MetaWorld benchmarks.
SeqRejectron constructs a stopping rule with a small set of validator policies to achieve horizon-free sample complexity for selective imitation learning under arbitrary dynamics shifts.
ReGuard discovers network scenarios where RL controllers perform 43-64% worse than achievable and reduces those gaps by 79-85% with lightweight rule-based protection that preserves normal performance.
HANDFUL learns resource-aware grasps using finger contact rewards and curriculum learning to improve success on sequential dexterous tasks in simulation and on a real LEAP hand.
Betting mechanisms can yield provably more accurate and efficient estimates of real-world robot behavior than Monte Carlo sampling under specified conditions, with practical approximations demonstrated on synthetic data and a robotic manipulator task.
Topology-preserving synthetic P&IDs generated by seeding from real drawings enable models trained solely on synthetics to achieve 63.8% edge mAP on real P&ID benchmarks, closing most of the gap to real-data training.
Single-timescale actor-critic with STORM momentum and a recent-sample buffer achieves optimal O(ε^{-2}) sample complexity for ε-optimal policies in finite discounted MDPs.
A Sim2Real2Sim learning pipeline enables a real-world dexterous robot to play piano pieces including Happy Birthday and Ode to Joy with an average F1-score of 0.881.
OpenAI Five achieved superhuman performance in Dota 2 by defeating the world champions using scaled self-play reinforcement learning.
Task diversity along map, object, and hierarchy axes produces local transfer across shifts in a new continual RL benchmark but fails to sustain learning as the number of shifts grows.
UniLab is a CPU/GPU heterogeneous system for robot RL training using MuJoCoUni and MotrixSim backends that reports 3-10x end-to-end efficiency improvements and cross-platform compatibility beyond CUDA.
Fishbone introduces a unified rib-spine representation computed via adaptive heat method, iso-contour ribs, and geometry-aware spine that enables real-time parametric deformation, reduced-space simulation, and animation on general meshes.
A VAE-based latent task representation enables automatic curriculum generation in CRL for non-Euclidean navigation tasks, outperforming interpolation and GAN-based methods in experiments.
The paper decomposes simulator value errors into identifiable shifts and irreducible residuals, shows passive learning fails on reachability, and introduces Fisher-SEP to minimize posterior value variance via targeted experiments.
Recasts sampling-based nonconvex optimization as smoothed gradient descent to obtain non-asymptotic convergence guarantees and introduces the DIDA annealed algorithm that converges to the global optimum.
DRIS improves zero-shot sim-to-real transfer for reactive catching by maintaining and acting on sets of randomized dynamics instances instead of single instances per episode.
GS-Playground delivers a high-throughput photorealistic simulator for vision-informed robot learning via parallel physics integrated with batch 3D Gaussian Splatting at 10^4 FPS and an automated Real2Sim workflow for consistent environments.
A framework using 3D Gaussian Splatting for visual domain randomization enables robust monocular RGB-based dexterous in-hand reorientation on real hardware for multiple objects under varied lighting.
Differentiable simulation enables torque-sensor-free actuator model identification from trajectory data, achieving 1.88x better position tracking than a stand-trained baseline and 46% longer travel in downstream locomotion policies.
citing papers explorer
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Taming the Curses of Multiagency in Robust Markov Games with Large State Space through Linear Function Approximation
The work gives the first algorithms for general robust Markov games with linear function approximation whose sample complexity breaks the curse of multiagency for large state spaces in both generative and online settings.
-
Beyond Binary: Sim-to-Real Dexterous Manipulation with Physics-Grounded Contact Representation
CoP tactile representation with differentiable calibration enables zero-shot sim-to-real transfer and outperforms binary and raw-taxel baselines on peg-in-hole insertion and ball balancing with a multi-fingered hand.
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Learning Robust Dexterous In-Hand Manipulation from Joint Sensors with Proprioceptive Transformer
A transformer policy distilled from a privileged RL teacher enables 3.1x faster real-world cube rotation on the ORCA hand using solely joint sensor data by extracting implicit object state from temporal joint patterns.
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Distributionally Robust Multi-Task Reinforcement Learning via Adaptive Task Sampling
DRATS derives a minimax objective from a feasibility formulation of MTRL to adaptively sample tasks with the largest return gaps, leading to better worst-task performance on MetaWorld benchmarks.
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Learning When to Stop: Selective Imitation Learning Under Arbitrary Dynamics Shift
SeqRejectron constructs a stopping rule with a small set of validator policies to achieve horizon-free sample complexity for selective imitation learning under arbitrary dynamics shifts.
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Worst-Case Discovery and Runtime Protection for RL-Based Network Controllers
ReGuard discovers network scenarios where RL controllers perform 43-64% worse than achievable and reduces those gaps by 79-85% with lightweight rule-based protection that preserves normal performance.
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HANDFUL: Sequential Grasp-Conditioned Dexterous Manipulation with Resource Awareness
HANDFUL learns resource-aware grasps using finger contact rewards and curriculum learning to improve success on sequential dexterous tasks in simulation and on a real LEAP hand.
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Betting for Sim-to-Real Performance Evaluation
Betting mechanisms can yield provably more accurate and efficient estimates of real-world robot behavior than Monte Carlo sampling under specified conditions, with practical approximations demonstrated on synthetic data and a robotic manipulator task.
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SynthPID: P&ID digitization from Topology-Preserving Synthetic Data
Topology-preserving synthetic P&IDs generated by seeding from real drawings enable models trained solely on synthetics to achieve 63.8% edge mAP on real P&ID benchmarks, closing most of the gap to real-data training.
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Optimal Sample Complexity for Single Time-Scale Actor-Critic with Momentum
Single-timescale actor-critic with STORM momentum and a recent-sample buffer achieves optimal O(ε^{-2}) sample complexity for ε-optimal policies in finite discounted MDPs.
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Task diversity produces systematic transfer but inhibits continual reinforcement learning
Task diversity along map, object, and hierarchy axes produces local transfer across shifts in a new continual RL benchmark but fails to sustain learning as the number of shifts grows.
-
UniLab: A Heterogeneous Architecture for Robot RL Beyond GPU-Dominant Paradigms
UniLab is a CPU/GPU heterogeneous system for robot RL training using MuJoCoUni and MotrixSim backends that reports 3-10x end-to-end efficiency improvements and cross-platform compatibility beyond CUDA.
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Fishbone: From One 3D Asset to a Million Controllable Edits
Fishbone introduces a unified rib-spine representation computed via adaptive heat method, iso-contour ribs, and geometry-aware spine that enables real-time parametric deformation, reduced-space simulation, and animation on general meshes.
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Curriculum reinforcement learning with measurable task representation learning
A VAE-based latent task representation enables automatic curriculum generation in CRL for non-Euclidean navigation tasks, outperforming interpolation and GAN-based methods in experiments.
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Mind the Sim-to-Real Gap & Think Like a Scientist
The paper decomposes simulator value errors into identifiable shifts and irreducible residuals, shows passive learning fails on reachability, and introduces Fisher-SEP to minimize posterior value variance via targeted experiments.
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Global Convergence of Sampling-Based Nonconvex Optimization through Diffusion-Style Smoothing
Recasts sampling-based nonconvex optimization as smoothed gradient descent to obtain non-asymptotic convergence guarantees and introduces the DIDA annealed algorithm that converges to the global optimum.
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Zero-Shot Sim-to-Real Robot Learning: A Dexterous Manipulation Study on Reactive Catching
DRIS improves zero-shot sim-to-real transfer for reactive catching by maintaining and acting on sets of randomized dynamics instances instead of single instances per episode.
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GS-Playground: A High-Throughput Photorealistic Simulator for Vision-Informed Robot Learning
GS-Playground delivers a high-throughput photorealistic simulator for vision-informed robot learning via parallel physics integrated with batch 3D Gaussian Splatting at 10^4 FPS and an automated Real2Sim workflow for consistent environments.
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ViserDex: Visual Sim-to-Real for Robust Dexterous In-hand Reorientation
A framework using 3D Gaussian Splatting for visual domain randomization enables robust monocular RGB-based dexterous in-hand reorientation on real hardware for multiple objects under varied lighting.
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Trajectory-based actuator identification via differentiable simulation
Differentiable simulation enables torque-sensor-free actuator model identification from trajectory data, achieving 1.88x better position tracking than a stand-trained baseline and 46% longer travel in downstream locomotion policies.
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ROBOGATE: Adaptive Failure Discovery for Safe Robot Policy Deployment via Two-Stage Boundary-Focused Sampling
ROBOGATE applies adaptive boundary-focused sampling in simulation to discover robot policy failure boundaries, revealing a 97.65 percentage point performance gap for a VLA model between LIBERO and industrial scenarios.
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LNN-Fly: Continuous-Time UAV Navigation for Robust Obstacle Avoidance under Timing Mismatch
LNN-Fly is a structured recurrent policy for continuous-time UAV obstacle avoidance trained with perturbed differentiable rollouts that shows improved tolerance to timing issues and zero-shot transfer to physical hardware with 100% success in real tests.
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Closed-Loop Sim-to-Real Reinforcement Learning for Deformable Microfiber Shape Control
A closed-loop sim-to-real RL policy trained in a simplified frictionless simulator achieves sub-millimeter microfiber shape control on physical hardware via visual feedback without retraining.
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You're Pushing My Buttons: Instrumented Learning of Gentle Button Presses
Training-time instrumentation with audio and privileged button-state signals produces contact policies that match success rates but apply lower forces using only vision and audio at inference.
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HandelBot: Real-World Piano Playing via Fast Adaptation of Dexterous Robot Policies
HandelBot refines simulation policies via physical rollouts and residual RL to achieve precise bimanual piano playing, outperforming direct sim transfer by 1.8x with only 30 minutes of real data across five songs.
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UniCon: A Unified System for Efficient Robot Learning Transfers
UniCon standardizes states and control logic into modular execution graphs for efficient transfer of learning controllers across heterogeneous robots, with lower latency than ROS.
- Learning Dexterous Grasping from Sparse Taxonomy Guidance
- PTLD: Sim-to-real Privileged Tactile Latent Distillation for Dexterous Manipulation