mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Expressive Whole-Body Control for Humanoid Robots

arXiv 2402.16796 ↗First posted 26 Feb 2024cs.RO cs.LGcited by 117

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Abstract (arXiv)

Can we enable humanoid robots to generate rich, diverse, and expressive motions in the real world? We propose to learn a whole-body control policy on a human-sized robot to mimic human motions as realistic as possible. To train such a policy, we leverage the large-scale human motion capture data from the graphics community in a Reinforcement Learning framework. However, directly performing imitation learning with the motion capture dataset would not work on the real humanoid robot, given the large gap in degrees of freedom and physical capabilities. Our method Expressive Whole-Body Control (Exbody) tackles this problem by encouraging the upper humanoid body to imitate a reference motion, while relaxing the imitation constraint on its two legs and only requiring them to follow a given velocity robustly. With training in simulation and Sim2Real transfer, our policy can control a humanoid robot to walk in different styles, shake hands with humans, and even dance with a human in the real world. We conduct extensive studies and comparisons on diverse motions in both simulation and the real world to show the effectiveness of our approach.

Key facts. Cited by 117 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 39 of its 69 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 26 Feb 2024.

Builds on

39 of 69 references.

References · 39

  1. 2019AMASS: Archive of Motion Capture as Surface Shapescited by 1,208
  2. 2022Human Motion Diffusion Modelcited by 1,062
  3. 2021Isaac Gym: High Performance GPU-Based Physics Simulation For Robot Learningcited by 882
  4. 2021RMA: Rapid Motor Adaptation for Legged Robotscited by 430
  5. 2021Learning to Walk in Minutes Using Massively Parallel Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 395
  6. 2020Learning Agile Robotic Locomotion Skills by Imitating Animalscited by 229
  7. 2023Perpetual Humanoid Control for Real-time Simulated Avatarscited by 198
  8. 2023Real-World Humanoid Locomotion with Reinforcement Learningcited by 132
  9. 2022Legged Locomotion in Challenging Terrains using Egocentric Visioncited by 131
  10. 2022Rapid Locomotion via Reinforcement Learningcited by 130
  11. 2023Extreme Parkour with Legged Robotscited by 120
  12. 2023Robot Parkour Learningcited by 115
27 more
  1. 2023Universal Humanoid Motion Representations for Physics-Based Controlcited by 109
  2. 2023Synthesizing Physical Character-Scene Interactionscited by 102
  3. 2022Deep Whole-Body Control: Learning a Unified Policy for Manipulation and Locomotioncited by 98
  4. 2021Reinforcement Learning for Robust Parameterized Locomotion Control of Bipedal Robotscited by 95
  5. 2023CALM: Conditional Adversarial Latent Models for Directable Virtual Characterscited by 91
  6. 2021Blind Bipedal Stair Traversal via Sim-to-Real Reinforcement Learningcited by 73
  7. 2022Adversarial Motion Priors Make Good Substitutes for Complex Reward Functionscited by 68
  8. 2021Minimizing Energy Consumption Leads to the Emergence of Gaits in Legged Robotscited by 67
  9. 2024Reinforcement Learning for Versatile, Dynamic, and Robust Bipedal Locomotion Controlcited by 63
  10. 2023Deep Imitation Learning for Humanoid Loco-manipulation through Human Teleoperationcited by 49
  11. 2023Neural Volumetric Memory for Visual Locomotion Controlcited by 40
  12. 2020UniCon: Universal Neural Controller For Physics-based Character Motioncited by 39
  13. 2021Learning to Jump from Pixelscited by 39
  14. 2023DribbleBot: Dynamic Legged Manipulation in the Wildcited by 33
  15. 2022Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Precise Soccer Shooting Skills using a Quadrupedal Robotcited by 32
  16. 2023Legs as Manipulator: Pushing Quadrupedal Agility Beyond Locomotioncited by 30
  17. 2023Learning Vision-Based Bipedal Locomotion for Challenging Terraincited by 30
  18. 2023Sim-to-Real Learning for Humanoid Box Loco-Manipulationcited by 30
  19. 2021The MIT Humanoid Robot: Design, Motion Planning, and Control For Acrobatic Behaviorscited by 28
  20. 2023HumanMimic: Learning Natural Locomotion and Transitions for Humanoid Robot via Wasserstein Adversarial Imitationcited by 23
  21. 2023Learning Whole-body Manipulation for Quadrupedal Robotcited by 20
  22. 2019Whole-Body Geometric Retargeting for Humanoid Robotscited by 19
  23. 2022OPT-Mimic: Imitation of Optimized Trajectories for Dynamic Quadruped Behaviorscited by 19
  24. 2023Generalized Animal Imitator: Agile Locomotion with Versatile Motion Priorcited by 17
  25. 2019Iterative Reinforcement Learning Based Design of Dynamic Locomotion Skills for Cassiecited by 13
  26. 2022Learning Deep Sensorimotor Policies for Vision-based Autonomous Drone Racingcited by 13
  27. 2023Words into Action: Learning Diverse Humanoid Robot Behaviors using Language Guided Iterative Motion Refinementcited by 7

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 24; 2025: 56; 2026: 37.

117 papers.

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  1. 2024Aligning Cyber Space with Physical World: A Comprehensive Survey on Embodied AIcited by 175
  2. 2024OmniH2O: Universal and Dexterous Human-to-Humanoid Whole-Body Teleoperation and Learningcited by 167
  3. 2024HumanPlus: Humanoid Shadowing and Imitation from Humanscited by 164
  4. 2024Open-TeleVision: Teleoperation with Immersive Active Visual Feedbackcited by 137
  5. 2025BeyondMimic: From Motion Tracking to Versatile Humanoid Control via Guided Diffusioncited by 128
  6. 2024Learning Human-to-Humanoid Real-Time Whole-Body Teleoperationcited by 112
  7. 2025ASAP: Aligning Simulation and Real-World Physics for Learning Agile Humanoid Whole-Body Skillscited by 104
  8. 2024HumanoidBench: Simulated Humanoid Benchmark for Whole-Body Locomotion and Manipulationcited by 101
  9. 2025TWIST: Teleoperated Whole-Body Imitation Systemcited by 86
  10. 2024DartControl: A Diffusion-Based Autoregressive Motion Model for Real-Time Text-Driven Motion Controlcited by 80
  11. 2024ExBody2: Advanced Expressive Humanoid Whole-Body Controlcited by 75
  12. 2025HOMIE: Humanoid Loco-Manipulation with Isomorphic Exoskeleton Cockpitcited by 65
38 more
  1. 2024OKAMI: Teaching Humanoid Robots Manipulation Skills through Single Video Imitationcited by 62
  2. 2025Zero-Shot Whole-Body Humanoid Control via Behavioral Foundation Modelscited by 51
  3. 2024Generalizable Humanoid Manipulation with 3D Diffusion Policiescited by 49
  4. 2025AMO: Adaptive Motion Optimization for Hyper-Dexterous Humanoid Whole-Body Controlcited by 47
  5. 2025SoFar: Language-Grounded Orientation Bridges Spatial Reasoning and Object Manipulationcited by 46
  6. 2025TokenHSI: Unified Synthesis of Physical Human-Scene Interactions through Task Tokenizationcited by 46
  7. 2024CooHOI: Learning Cooperative Human-Object Interaction with Manipulated Object Dynamicscited by 43
  8. 2025Humanoid-VLA: Towards Universal Humanoid Control with Visual Integrationcited by 43
  9. 2024Mobile-TeleVision: Predictive Motion Priors for Humanoid Whole-Body Controlcited by 41
  10. 2025LeVERB: Humanoid Whole-Body Control with Latent Vision-Language Instructioncited by 40
  11. 2025KungfuBot: Physics-Based Humanoid Whole-Body Control for Learning Highly-Dynamic Skillscited by 39
  12. 2024Humanoid-Gym: Reinforcement Learning for Humanoid Robot with Zero-Shot Sim2Real Transfercited by 35
  13. 2025Learning Humanoid Standing-up Control across Diverse Posturescited by 34
  14. 2025ResMimic: From General Motion Tracking to Humanoid Whole-body Loco-Manipulation via Residual Learningcited by 34
  15. 2025Robotic Manipulation by Imitating Generated Videos Without Physical Demonstrationscited by 33
  16. 2025BeamDojo: Learning Agile Humanoid Locomotion on Sparse Footholdscited by 32
  17. 2025WholeBodyVLA: Towards Unified Latent VLA for Whole-Body Loco-Manipulation Controlcited by 32
  18. 2025Whole-Body Conditioned Egocentric Video Predictioncited by 30
  19. 2024Learning from Massive Human Videos for Universal Humanoid Pose Controlcited by 27
  20. 2024Learning Smooth Humanoid Locomotion through Lipschitz-Constrained Policiescited by 26
  21. 2024Hierarchical World Models as Visual Whole-Body Humanoid Controllerscited by 24
  22. 2024ActSafe: Active Exploration with Safety Constraints for Reinforcement Learningcited by 22
  23. 2024Harmon: Whole-Body Motion Generation of Humanoid Robots from Language Descriptionscited by 22
  24. 2025Humanoid Everyday: A Comprehensive Robotic Dataset for Open-World Humanoid Manipulationcited by 22
  25. 2025Learning Getting-Up Policies for Real-World Humanoid Robotscited by 21
  26. 2025Being-0: A Humanoid Robotic Agent with Vision-Language Models and Modular Skillscited by 21
  27. 2025HuB: Learning Extreme Humanoid Balancecited by 21
  28. 2025PhysHSI: Towards a Real-World Generalizable and Natural Humanoid-Scene Interaction Systemcited by 17
  29. 2024Learning Multi-Modal Whole-Body Control for Real-World Humanoid Robotscited by 16
  30. 2025Learning coordinated badminton skills for legged manipulatorscited by 16
  31. 2024Mimicking-Bench: A Benchmark for Generalizable Humanoid-Scene Interaction Learning via Human Mimickingcited by 14
  32. 2025LocoFormer: Generalist Locomotion via Long-context Adaptationcited by 14
  33. 2025DreamControl: Human-Inspired Whole-Body Humanoid Control for Scene Interaction via Guided Diffusioncited by 13
  34. 2025Opening the Sim-to-Real Door for Humanoid Pixel-to-Action Policy Transfercited by 13
  35. 2025Towards Embodiment Scaling Laws in Robot Locomotioncited by 12
  36. 2025Bridging the Sim-to-Real Gap for Athletic Loco-Manipulationcited by 11
  37. 2025KungfuBot2: Learning Versatile Motion Skills for Humanoid Whole-Body Controlcited by 11
  38. 2026Humanoid Manipulation Interface: Humanoid Whole-Body Manipulation from Robot-Free Demonstrationscited by 11

50 most cited of 117 All 117 (JSON)

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  1. 2026Learning Whole-Body Humanoid Locomotion via Motion Generation and Motion Tracking
  2. 2026HumanoidMimicGen: Data Generation for Loco-Manipulation via Whole-Body Planning
  3. 2026Bionic Human-Motion Style Transfer for Physically Executable Whole-Body Control of Humanoid Robots ↗
  4. 2025SimGenHOI: Physically Realistic Whole-Body Humanoid-Object Interaction via Generative Modeling and Reinforcement Learning
  5. 2025Humanoid Locomotion and Manipulation: Current Progress and Challenges in Control, Planning, and Learning
  6. 2025Generating Physically Realistic and Directable Human Motions from Multi-Modal Inputs
  7. 2026InterMimicGen: Scaling Humanoid Loco-Manipulation through Self-Evolving Motion Imitation
  8. 2026WholeBodyWAM: Learning Whole-Body World Action Models with Scalable Motion Priors