mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Dexterous Imitation Made Easy: A Learning-Based Framework for Efficient Dexterous Manipulation

arXiv 2203.13251 ↗First posted 24 Mar 2022cs.RO cs.AI cs.CVcited by 75

On the map: Offline RL and imitation learning from data → Robot manipulation imitation learning

Abstract (arXiv)

Optimizing behaviors for dexterous manipulation has been a longstanding challenge in robotics, with a variety of methods from model-based control to model-free reinforcement learning having been previously explored in literature. Perhaps one of the most powerful techniques to learn complex manipulation strategies is imitation learning. However, collecting and learning from demonstrations in dexterous manipulation is quite challenging. The complex, high-dimensional action-space involved with multi-finger control often leads to poor sample efficiency of learning-based methods. In this work, we propose 'Dexterous Imitation Made Easy' (DIME) a new imitation learning framework for dexterous manipulation. DIME only requires a single RGB camera to observe a human operator and teleoperate our robotic hand. Once demonstrations are collected, DIME employs standard imitation learning methods to train dexterous manipulation policies. On both simulation and real robot benchmarks we demonstrate that DIME can be used to solve complex, in-hand manipulation tasks such as 'flipping', 'spinning', and 'rotating' objects with the Allegro hand. Our framework along with pre-collected demonstrations is publicly available at https://nyu-robot-learning.github.io/dime.

Key facts. Cited by 75 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Robot manipulation imitation learning, one of 13 directions in Offline RL and imitation learning from data. Builds on 32 of its 61 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 24 Mar 2022.

Builds on

32 of 61 references.

Closest ancestors · 5

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2021The Surprising Effectiveness of Representation Learning for Visual Imitation2 Dec
  2. 2021DexMV: Imitation Learning for Dexterous Manipulation from Human Videos12 Aug
  3. 2021Playful Interactions for Representation Learning19 Jul
  4. 2020Visual Imitation Made Easy11 Aug
  5. 2020State-Only Imitation Learning for Dexterous Manipulation7 Apr

Other references · 27

  1. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 14,441
  2. 2020Bootstrap your own latent: A new approach to self-supervised Learningcited by 4,712
  3. 2016End to End Learning for Self-Driving Carscited by 1,000
  4. 2019Solving Rubik's Cube with a Robot Handcited by 699
  5. 2017Learning Complex Dexterous Manipulation with Deep Reinforcement Learning and Demonstrationscited by 685
  6. 2018Learning Dexterous In-Hand Manipulationcited by 643
  7. 2021Implicit Behavioral Cloningcited by 442
  8. 2019Learning Latent Plans from Playcited by 310
  9. 2017Leveraging Demonstrations for Deep Reinforcement Learning on Robotics Problems with Sparse Rewardscited by 302
  10. 2017Deep Imitation Learning for Complex Manipulation Tasks from Virtual Reality Teleoperationcited by 286
  11. 2019Deep Dynamics Models for Learning Dexterous Manipulationcited by 200
  12. 2021FrankMocap: A Monocular 3D Whole-Body Pose Estimation System via Regression and Integrationcited by 168
15 more
  1. 2020MediaPipe Hands: On-device Real-time Hand Trackingcited by 157
  2. 2021A System for General In-Hand Object Re-Orientationcited by 155
  3. 2019DexPilot: Vision Based Teleoperation of Dexterous Robotic Hand-Arm Systemcited by 105
  4. 2018Plan Online, Learn Offline: Efficient Learning and Exploration via Model-Based Controlcited by 104
  5. 2019Grasping in the Wild:Learning 6DoF Closed-Loop Grasping from Low-Cost Demonstrationscited by 104
  6. 2017V2V-PoseNet: Voxel-to-Voxel Prediction Network for Accurate 3D Hand and Human Pose Estimation from a Single Depth Mapcited by 102
  7. 2022Don't Change the Algorithm, Change the Data: Exploratory Data for Offline Reinforcement Learningcited by 93
  8. 2017Combining Self-Supervised Learning and Imitation for Vision-Based Rope Manipulationcited by 90
  9. 2022DexVIP: Learning Dexterous Grasping with Human Hand Pose Priors from Videocited by 83
  10. 2022Robotic Telekinesis: Learning a Robotic Hand Imitator by Watching Humans on Youtubecited by 79
  11. 2018Multiple Interactions Made Easy (MIME): Large Scale Demonstrations Data for Imitationcited by 76
  12. 2019ROBEL: Robotics Benchmarks for Learning with Low-Cost Robotscited by 70
  13. 2016Learning Dexterous Manipulation Policies from Experience and Imitationcited by 32
  14. 2022Surprisingly Robust In-Hand Manipulation: An Empirical Studycited by 16
  15. 2022RBO Hand 3 -- A Platform for Soft Dexterous Manipulationcited by 9

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2022: 13; 2023: 18; 2024: 22; 2025: 19; 2026: 3.

75 papers.

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  1. 2022Behavior Transformers: Cloning k modes with one stonecited by 299
  2. 2022Real-World Robot Learning with Masked Visual Pre-trainingcited by 241
  3. 2023Affordances from Human Videos as a Versatile Representation for Roboticscited by 221
  4. 2024DexCap: Scalable and Portable Mocap Data Collection System for Dexterous Manipulationcited by 149
  5. 2023Structured World Models from Human Videoscited by 144
  6. 2023AnyTeleop: A General Vision-Based Dexterous Robot Arm-Hand Teleoperation Systemcited by 136
  7. 20243D Diffusion Policy: Generalizable Visuomotor Policy Learning via Simple 3D Representationscited by 115
  8. 2022VideoDex: Learning Dexterity from Internet Videoscited by 101
  9. 2023On Bringing Robots Homecited by 101
  10. 2023General In-Hand Object Rotation with Vision and Touchcited by 87
  11. 2025DexGraspVLA: A Vision-Language-Action Framework Towards General Dexterous Graspingcited by 87
  12. 2022From One Hand to Multiple Hands: Imitation Learning for Dexterous Manipulation from Single-Camera Teleoperationcited by 79
38 more
  1. 2023Rotating without Seeing: Towards In-hand Dexterity through Touchcited by 78
  2. 2023LEAP Hand: Low-Cost, Efficient, and Anthropomorphic Hand for Robot Learningcited by 78
  3. 2023Teach a Robot to FISH: Versatile Imitation from One Minute of Demonstrationscited by 74
  4. 2024Learning Visuotactile Skills with Two Multifingered Handscited by 71
  5. 20243D-ViTac: Learning Fine-Grained Manipulation with Visuo-Tactile Sensingcited by 67
  6. 2025Humanoid Policy ~ Human Policycited by 65
  7. 2022Watch and Match: Supercharging Imitation with Regularized Optimal Transportcited by 64
  8. 2023Dexterity from Touch: Self-Supervised Pre-Training of Tactile Representations with Robotic Playcited by 60
  9. 2025ManipTrans: Efficient Dexterous Bimanual Manipulation Transfer via Residual Learningcited by 56
  10. 2022GenDexGrasp: Generalizable Dexterous Graspingcited by 54
  11. 2022Holo-Dex: Teaching Dexterity with Immersive Mixed Realitycited by 52
  12. 2023Robot Synesthesia: In-Hand Manipulation with Visuotactile Sensingcited by 51
  13. 2022Learning Generalizable Dexterous Manipulation from Human Grasp Affordancecited by 46
  14. 2022Graph Inverse Reinforcement Learning from Diverse Videoscited by 45
  15. 2023Sequential Dexterity: Chaining Dexterous Policies for Long-Horizon Manipulationcited by 43
  16. 2024Robot Utility Models: General Policies for Zero-Shot Deployment in New Environmentscited by 43
  17. 2024Hand-Object Interaction Pretraining from Videoscited by 38
  18. 2023Dexterous Functional Graspingcited by 36
  19. 2024Twisting Lids Off with Two Handscited by 36
  20. 2024A Survey of Embodied Learning for Object-Centric Robotic Manipulationcited by 34
  21. 2023See to Touch: Learning Tactile Dexterity through Visual Incentivescited by 33
  22. 2024ViViDex: Learning Vision-based Dexterous Manipulation from Human Videoscited by 33
  23. 2022Learning to Imitate Object Interactions from Internet Videoscited by 32
  24. 2024ACE: A Cross-Platform Visual-Exoskeletons System for Low-Cost Dexterous Teleoperationcited by 32
  25. 2024CyberDemo: Augmenting Simulated Human Demonstration for Real-World Dexterous Manipulationcited by 25
  26. 2025X-Sim: Cross-Embodiment Learning via Real-to-Sim-to-Realcited by 25
  27. 2023DexDeform: Dexterous Deformable Object Manipulation with Human Demonstrations and Differentiable Physicscited by 23
  28. 2024Lessons from Learning to Spin "Pens"cited by 22
  29. 2024Mamba Policy: Towards Efficient 3D Diffusion Policy with Hybrid Selective State Modelscited by 22
  30. 2023Demonstration-Guided Reinforcement Learning with Efficient Exploration for Task Automation of Surgical Robotcited by 21
  31. 2025Dexterous Manipulation through Imitation Learning: A Surveycited by 18
  32. 2023Novel-view Synthesis and Pose Estimation for Hand-Object Interaction from Sparse Viewscited by 16
  33. 2024Hearing Touch: Audio-Visual Pretraining for Contact-Rich Manipulationcited by 14
  34. 2025FDPP: Fine-tune Diffusion Policy with Human Preferencecited by 14
  35. 2024Learning In-Hand Translation Using Tactile Skin With Shear and Normal Force Sensingcited by 13
  36. 2022That Sounds Right: Auditory Self-Supervision for Dynamic Robot Manipulationcited by 12
  37. 2024Learning Diverse Bimanual Dexterous Manipulation Skills from Human Demonstrationscited by 12
  38. 2024DexTouch: Learning to Seek and Manipulate Objects with Tactile Dexteritycited by 11

50 most cited of 75 All 75 (JSON)

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  1. 2022Evaluating the Effectiveness of Corrective Demonstrations and a Low-Cost Sensor for Dexterous Manipulation
  2. 2025Robotic Manipulation via Imitation Learning: Taxonomy, Evolution, Benchmark, and Challenges
  3. 2025RoboManipBaselines: A Unified Framework for Imitation Learning in Robotic Manipulation across Real and Simulation Environments
  4. 2026Dexterous Point Policy: Learning Point-based Dexterous Hand Policies from Human Demonstrations
  5. 2024Precise and Dexterous Robotic Manipulation via Human-in-the-Loop Reinforcement Learning
  6. 2026EaDex: A Cross-Embodiment Dexterous Manipulation Framework from Low-Cost Demonstrations
  7. 2021Coarse-to-Fine Imitation Learning: Robot Manipulation from a Single Demonstration
  8. 2025Crossing the Human-Robot Embodiment Gap with Sim-to-Real RL using One Human Demonstration