# Robotic Perception of Transparent Objects: A Review

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.00157 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.00157/

## Key facts

- Cited by 28 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 31 Mar 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 28 of 28)

- [ORGANA: A Robotic Assistant for Automated Chemistry Experimentation and Characterization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.06949/) (2024)
- [A Survey of Embodied Learning for Object-Centric Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11537/) (2024)
- [Spider: A Unified Framework for Context-dependent Concept Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.01002/) (2024)
- [ClearDepth: Enhanced Stereo Perception of Transparent Objects for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.08926/) (2024)
- [Diffusion-Based Depth Inpainting for Transparent and Reflective Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08567/) (2024)
- [Monocular Depth Estimation and Segmentation for Transparent Object with Iterative Semantic and Geometric Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.14616/) (2025)
- [TransDiff: Diffusion-Based Method for Manipulating Transparent Objects Using a Single RGB-D Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.12779/) (2025)
- [RFTrans: Leveraging Refractive Flow of Transparent Objects for Surface Normal Estimation and Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12398/) (2023)
- [SAID-NeRF: Segmentation-AIDed NeRF for Depth Completion of Transparent Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.19607/) (2024)
- [Safe-Night VLA: Seeing the Unseen via Thermal-Perceptive Vision-Language-Action Models for Safety-Critical Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.05754/) (2026)
- [Task-oriented Robotic Manipulation with Vision Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.15863/) (2024)
- [DeLTa: Demonstration and Language-Guided Novel Transparent Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.05662/) (2025)
- [DistillGrasp: Integrating Features Correlation with Knowledge Distillation for Depth Completion of Transparent Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00337/) (2024)
- [Depth Restoration of Hand-Held Transparent Objects for Human-to-Robot Handover](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.14997/) (2024)
- [Shaken, Not Stirred: A Novel Dataset for Visual Understanding of Glasses in Human-Robot Bartending Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.04308/) (2025)
- [EGSA-PT:Edge-Guided Spatial Attention with Progressive Training for Monocular Depth Estimation and Segmentation of Transparent Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.14970/) (2025)
- [Self-Supervised Learning for Transparent Object Depth Completion Using Depth from Non-Transparent Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.05006/) (2025)
- [UNeR3D: Versatile and Scalable 3D RGB Point Cloud Generation from 2D Images in Unsupervised Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06706/) (2023)
- [VAIR: Visuo-Acoustic Implicit Representations for Low-Cost, Multi-Modal Transparent Surface Reconstruction in Indoor Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04963/) (2024)
- [GAA-TSO: Geometry-Aware Assisted Depth Completion for Transparent and Specular Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17106/) (2025)
- [DidSee: Diffusion-Based Depth Completion for Material-Agnostic Robotic Perception and Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.21034/) (2025)
- [Deep Learning Perspective of Scene Understanding in Autonomous Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.14020/) (2025)
- [Hierarchical Audio-Visual-Proprioceptive Fusion for Precise Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.13640/) (2026)
- [SEP-YOLO: Fourier-Domain Feature Representation for Transparent Object Instance Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.02648/) (2026)
- [TransDex: Pre-training Visuo-Tactile Policy with Point Cloud Reconstruction for Dexterous Manipulation of Transparent Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.13869/) (2026)
- [Transparent Fragments Contour Estimation via Visual-Tactile Fusion for Autonomous Reassembly](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.20290/) (2026)
- [GaussianEmoTalker: Real-Time Emotional Talking Head Synthesis with Audio-Driven and Blendshape-Based 3D Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.00959/) (2026)
- [GIFT: Geometry-Invariant Fine-Tuning for Non-Lambertian Monocular Depth Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.02068/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Transparent object perception is a rapidly developing research problem in artificial intelligence. The ability to perceive transparent objects enables robots to achieve higher levels of autonomy, unlocking new applications in various industries such as healthcare, services and manufacturing. Despite numerous datasets and perception methods being proposed in recent years, there is still a lack of in-depth understanding of these methods and the challenges in this field. To address this gap, this article provides a comprehensive survey of the platforms and recent advances for robotic perception of transparent objects. We highlight the main challenges and propose future directions of various transparent object perception tasks, i.e., segmentation, reconstruction, and pose estimation. We also discuss the limitations of existing datasets in diversity and complexity, and the benefits of employing multi-modal sensors, such as RGB-D cameras, thermal cameras, and polarised imaging, for transparent object perception. Furthermore, we identify perception challenges in complex and dynamic environments, as well as for objects with changeable geometries. Finally, we provide an interactive online platform to navigate each reference: urlhttps://sites.google.com/view/transperception.