# Speeding up 6-DoF Grasp Sampling with Quality-Diversity

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2403.06173 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.06173/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 24 of its 40 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Mar 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 24 of 24)

- [Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04137/) (2023)
- [Illuminating search spaces by mapping elites](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.04909/) (2015)
- [Learning Hand-Eye Coordination for Robotic Grasping with Deep Learning and Large-Scale Data Collection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.02199/) (2016)
- [Dex-Net 2.0: Deep Learning to Plan Robust Grasps with Synthetic Point Clouds and Analytic Grasp Metrics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.09312/) (2017)
- [ACRONYM: A Large-Scale Grasp Dataset Based on Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.09584/) (2020)
- [Benchmarking in Manipulation Research: The YCB Object and Model Set and Benchmarking Protocols](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1502.03143/) (2015)
- [Jacquard: A Large Scale Dataset for Robotic Grasp Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.11469/) (2018)
- [From One Hand to Multiple Hands: Imitation Learning for Dexterous Manipulation from Single-Camera Teleoperation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.12490/) (2022)
- [Deep Learning Approaches to Grasp Synthesis: A Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.02556/) (2022)
- [Quality-Diversity Optimization: a novel branch of stochastic optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.04322/) (2020)
- [Grasp'D: Differentiable Contact-rich Grasp Synthesis for Multi-fingered Hands](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.12250/) (2022)
- [Fast-Grasp'D: Dexterous Multi-finger Grasp Generation Through Differentiable Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.08132/) (2023)
- [Grasp-Anything: Large-scale Grasp Dataset from Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.09818/) (2023)
- [A Billion Ways to Grasp: An Evaluation of Grasp Sampling Schemes on a Dense, Physics-based Grasp Data Set](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.05604/) (2019)
- [Learning to Grasp the Ungraspable with Emergent Extrinsic Dexterity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.01500/) (2022)
- [Covariance Matrix Adaptation MAP-Annealing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.10752/) (2022)
- [DemoGrasp: Few-Shot Learning for Robotic Grasping with Human Demonstration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.02849/) (2021)
- [Robotic Grasping from Classical to Modern: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.03631/) (2022)
- [GraspLDM: Generative 6-DoF Grasp Synthesis using Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11243/) (2023)
- [Domain Randomization for Sim2real Transfer of Automatically Generated Grasping Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04517/) (2023)
- [Exploiting Kinematic Redundancy for Robotic Grasping of Multiple Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.01868/) (2023)
- [Quality Diversity under Sparse Reward and Sparse Interaction: Application to Grasping in Robotics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.05483/) (2023)
- [FuncGrasp: Learning Object-Centric Neural Grasp Functions from Single Annotated Example Object](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.05644/) (2024)
- [Toward a Plug-and-Play Vision-Based Grasping Module for Robotics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.04349/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [CaDRE: Controllable and Diverse Generation of Safety-Critical Driving Scenarios using Real-World Trajectories](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.13208/) (2024)
- [QDGset: A Large Scale Grasping Dataset Generated with Quality-Diversity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.02319/) (2024)
- [QDTraj: Exploration of Diverse Trajectory Primitives for Articulated Objects Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.22551/) (2026)
- [Placeit! A Framework for Learning Robot Object Placement Skills](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.09267/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advances in AI have led to significant results in robotic learning, including natural language-conditioned planning and efficient optimization of controllers using generative models. However, the interaction data remains the bottleneck for generalization. Getting data for grasping is a critical challenge, as this skill is required to complete many manipulation tasks. Quality-Diversity (QD) algorithms optimize a set of solutions to get diverse, high-performing solutions to a given problem. This paper investigates how QD can be combined with priors to speed up the generation of diverse grasps poses in simulation compared to standard 6-DoF grasp sampling schemes. Experiments conducted on 4 grippers with 2-to-5 fingers on standard objects show that QD outperforms commonly used methods by a large margin. Further experiments show that QD optimization automatically finds some efficient priors that are usually hard coded. The deployment of generated grasps on a 2-finger gripper and an Allegro hand shows that the diversity produced maintains sim-to-real transferability. We believe these results to be a significant step toward the generation of large datasets that can lead to robust and generalizing robotic grasping policies.