mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Aligning Cyber Space with Physical World: A Comprehensive Survey on Embodied AI

arXiv 2407.06886 ↗First posted 9 Jul 2024cs.CV cs.AI cs.LGcited by 179

Not on the map. Why?

Cited by 40 in LLM agents and tool use, but placed by its own abstract, which didn’t fit.

Abstract (arXiv)

Embodied Artificial Intelligence (Embodied AI) is crucial for achieving Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and serves as a foundation for various applications (e.g., intelligent mechatronics systems, smart manufacturing) that bridge cyberspace and the physical world. Recently, the emergence of Multi-modal Large Models (MLMs) and World Models (WMs) have attracted significant attention due to their remarkable perception, interaction, and reasoning capabilities, making them a promising architecture for embodied agents. In this survey, we give a comprehensive exploration of the latest advancements in Embodied AI. Our analysis firstly navigates through the forefront of representative works of embodied robots and simulators, to fully understand the research focuses and their limitations. Then, we analyze four main research targets: 1) embodied perception, 2) embodied interaction, 3) embodied agent, and 4) sim-to-real adaptation, covering state-of-the-art methods, essential paradigms, and comprehensive datasets. Additionally, we explore the complexities of MLMs in virtual and real embodied agents, highlighting their significance in facilitating interactions in digital and physical environments. Finally, we summarize the challenges and limitations of embodied AI and discuss potential future directions. We hope this survey will serve as a foundational reference for the research community. The associated project can be found at https://github.com/HCPLab-SYSU/Embodied_AI_Paper_List.

Key facts. Cited by 179 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 291 of its 435 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 9 Jul 2024.

Builds on

291 of 435 references.

References · 291

  1. 2018BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understandingcited by 40,399
  2. 2021Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervisioncited by 33,744
  3. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
  4. 2020An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scalecited by 30,186
  5. 2023GPT-4 Technical Reportcited by 18,396
  6. 2019RoBERTa: A Robustly Optimized BERT Pretraining Approachcited by 13,372
  7. 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,459
  8. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,695
  9. 2023BLIP-2: Bootstrapping Language-Image Pre-training with Frozen Image Encoders and Large Language Modelscited by 6,137
  10. 2016PointNet: Deep Learning on Point Sets for 3D Classification and Segmentationcited by 5,248
  11. 2017PointNet++: Deep Hierarchical Feature Learning on Point Sets in a Metric Spacecited by 4,401
  12. 2017ScanNet: Richly-annotated 3D Reconstructions of Indoor Scenescited by 3,117
38 more
  1. 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Controlcited by 3,080
  2. 2022Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordancescited by 2,348
  3. 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,191
  4. 2023PaLM-E: An Embodied Multimodal Language Modelcited by 2,071
  5. 2022RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scalecited by 2,061
  6. 2018PointPillars: Fast Encoders for Object Detection from Point Cloudscited by 1,715
  7. 2023Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardwarecited by 1,568
  8. 2018World Modelscited by 1,513
  9. 2017Domain Randomization for Transferring Deep Neural Networks from Simulation to the Real Worldcited by 1,498
  10. 2020Point Transformercited by 1,470
  11. 2023The Rise and Potential of Large Language Model Based Agents: A Surveycited by 1,439
  12. 2017Matterport3D: Learning from RGB-D Data in Indoor Environmentscited by 1,376
  13. 2017VoxelNet: End-to-End Learning for Point Cloud Based 3D Object Detectioncited by 1,323
  14. 2022Code as Policies: Language Model Programs for Embodied Controlcited by 1,210
  15. 20194D Spatio-Temporal ConvNets: Minkowski Convolutional Neural Networkscited by 1,208
  16. 2020ALFWorld: Aligning Text and Embodied Environments for Interactive Learningcited by 1,205
  17. 2019Habitat: A Platform for Embodied AI Researchcited by 1,191
  18. 2023ImageBind: One Embedding Space To Bind Them Allcited by 1,175
  19. 2021Grounded Language-Image Pre-trainingcited by 1,156
  20. 2022Inner Monologue: Embodied Reasoning through Planning with Language Modelscited by 1,081
  21. 2023Self-Supervised Learning from Images with a Joint-Embedding Predictive Architecturecited by 1,039
  22. 2022Language Models as Zero-Shot Planners: Extracting Actionable Knowledge for Embodied Agentscited by 1,035
  23. 2017Vision-and-Language Navigation: Interpreting visually-grounded navigation instructions in real environmentscited by 1,027
  24. 2021Isaac Gym: High Performance GPU-Based Physics Simulation For Robot Learningcited by 998
  25. 2015ORB-SLAM: a Versatile and Accurate Monocular SLAM Systemcited by 988
  26. 2017AI2-THOR: An Interactive 3D Environment for Visual AIcited by 869
  27. 2023Reasoning with Language Model is Planning with World Modelcited by 861
  28. 2021MDETR -- Modulated Detection for End-to-End Multi-Modal Understandingcited by 819
  29. 2019ALFRED: A Benchmark for Interpreting Grounded Instructions for Everyday Taskscited by 783
  30. 20173D Semantic Segmentation with Submanifold Sparse Convolutional Networkscited by 748
  31. 2022Fine-Tuning can Distort Pretrained Features and Underperform Out-of-Distributioncited by 739
  32. 2016Multi-View 3D Object Detection Network for Autonomous Drivingcited by 724
  33. 2022R3M: A Universal Visual Representation for Robot Manipulationcited by 694
  34. 2018Learning Dexterous In-Hand Manipulationcited by 687
  35. 2021CLIPort: What and Where Pathways for Robotic Manipulationcited by 622
  36. 2022ProgPrompt: Generating Situated Robot Task Plans using Large Language Modelscited by 611
  37. 2020SAPIEN: A SimulAted Part-based Interactive ENvironmentcited by 595
  38. 2021Habitat-Matterport 3D Dataset (HM3D): 1000 Large-scale 3D Environments for Embodied AIcited by 592

50 most cited of 291 All 291 (JSON)

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 17; 2025: 92; 2026: 70.

179 papers.

Sort:

By area:

  1. 2025Imagine while Reasoning in Space: Multimodal Visualization-of-Thoughtcited by 206
  2. 2024Uni-NaVid: A Video-based Vision-Language-Action Model for Unifying Embodied Navigation Taskscited by 156
  3. 2025A Survey of Efficient Reasoning for Large Reasoning Models: Language, Multimodality, and Beyondcited by 132
  4. 2025SafeVLA: Towards Safety Alignment of Vision-Language-Action Model via Constrained Learningcited by 72
  5. 2025Large VLM-based Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulation: A Surveycited by 69
  6. 2025A Comprehensive Survey on World Models for Embodied AIcited by 68
  7. 2024Towards Long-Horizon Vision-Language Navigation: Platform, Benchmark and Methodcited by 67
  8. 2025VLN-R1: Vision-Language Navigation via Reinforcement Fine-Tuningcited by 63
  9. 2025Move to Understand a 3D Scene: Bridging Visual Grounding and Exploration for Efficient and Versatile Embodied Navigationcited by 51
  10. 2025AI Flow: Perspectives, Scenarios, and Approachescited by 44
  11. 2024BadRobot: Jailbreaking Embodied LLM Agents in the Physical Worldcited by 43
  12. 2025UProp: Investigating the Uncertainty Propagation of LLMs in Multi-Step Agentic Decision-Makingcited by 42
38 more
  1. 2025Embodied-R: Collaborative Framework for Activating Embodied Spatial Reasoning in Foundation Models via Reinforcement Learningcited by 37
  2. 2025Multi-agent Embodied AI: Advances and Future Directionscited by 36
  3. 2025Learning Video Generation for Robotic Manipulation with Collaborative Trajectory Controlcited by 34
  4. 2025A Survey of Large Language Model Empowered Agents for Recommendation and Search: Towards Next-Generation Information Retrievalcited by 33
  5. 2025CityEQA: A Hierarchical LLM Agent on Embodied Question Answering Benchmark in City Spacecited by 32
  6. 2025VLA-Arena: An Open-Source Framework for Benchmarking Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 31
  7. 2025Mem2Ego: Empowering Vision-Language Models with Global-to-Ego Memory for Long-Horizon Embodied Navigationcited by 30
  8. 2025Beyond the Destination: A Novel Benchmark for Exploration-Aware Embodied Question Answeringcited by 30
  9. 2025A Framework for Benchmarking and Aligning Task-Planning Safety in LLM-Based Embodied Agentscited by 30
  10. 2024EVA: An Embodied World Model for Future Video Anticipationcited by 28
  11. 2026FluxMem: Adaptive Hierarchical Memory for Streaming Video Understandingcited by 28
  12. 2024WALL-E: World Alignment by Rule Learning Improves World Model-based LLM Agentscited by 26
  13. 2025LoHoVLA: A Unified Vision-Language-Action Model for Long-Horizon Embodied Taskscited by 26
  14. 2024Both Ears Wide Open: Towards Language-Driven Spatial Audio Generationcited by 25
  15. 2025Robobench: A Comprehensive Evaluation Benchmark for Multimodal Large Language Models as Embodied Braincited by 25
  16. 2026WorldCompass: Reinforcement Learning for Long-Horizon World Modelscited by 24
  17. 2024A Survey on Large Language Model-Based Social Agents in Game-Theoretic Scenarioscited by 23
  18. 2025Graphs Meet AI Agents: Taxonomy, Progress, and Future Opportunitiescited by 23
  19. 2025A Survey on Agentic Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 23
  20. 2025RFTF: Reinforcement Fine-tuning for Embodied Agents with Temporal Feedbackcited by 20
  21. 2025VLA-RAIL: A Real-Time Asynchronous Inference Linker for VLA Models and Robotscited by 19
  22. 2025Large language models for artificial general intelligence (AGI): A survey of foundational principles and approachescited by 18
  23. 2025FedVLA: Federated Vision-Language-Action Learning with Dual Gating Mixture-of-Experts for Robotic Manipulationcited by 18
  24. 2025DeepThinkVLA: Enhancing Reasoning Capability of Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 18
  25. 2025SafeMind: Benchmarking and Mitigating Safety Risks in Embodied LLM Agentscited by 17
  26. 2025Goal-oriented Backdoor Attack against Vision-Language-Action Models via Physical Objectscited by 17
  27. 2025A Survey of Robotic Navigation and Manipulation with Physics Simulators in the Era of Embodied AIcited by 16
  28. 2024A Study on Prompt Injection Attack Against LLM-Integrated Mobile Robotic Systemscited by 15
  29. 2025Reasoning Does Not Necessarily Improve Role-Playing Abilitycited by 14
  30. 2025GIScience in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: A Research Agenda Towards Autonomous GIScited by 14
  31. 2025Reconstructing 4D Spatial Intelligence: A Surveycited by 14
  32. 2025Generative Multi-Agent Collaboration in Embodied AI: A Systematic Reviewcited by 13
  33. 2025CLiViS: Unleashing Cognitive Map through Linguistic-Visual Synergy for Embodied Visual Reasoningcited by 13
  34. 2024The Dark Side of Trust: Authority Citation-Driven Jailbreak Attacks on Large Language Modelscited by 10
  35. 2024NoisyEQA: Benchmarking Embodied Question Answering Against Noisy Queriescited by 10
  36. 2025Neural Brain: A Neuroscience-inspired Framework for Embodied Agentscited by 10
  37. 2025When Robots Should Say "I Don't Know": Benchmarking Abstention in Embodied Question Answeringcited by 10
  38. 2025DSPNet: Dual-vision Scene Perception for Robust 3D Question Answeringcited by 9

50 most cited of 179 All 179 (JSON)

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025Embodied AI: From LLMs to World Models
  2. 2025A Survey: Learning Embodied Intelligence from Physical Simulators and World Models
  3. 2025Embodied AI Agents: Modeling the World
  4. 2025Large Model Empowered Embodied AI: A Survey on Decision-Making and Embodied Learning
  5. 2025Modeling the Mental World for Embodied AI: A Comprehensive Review
  6. 2024EmbodiedCity: A Benchmark Platform for Embodied Agent in Real-world City Environment
  7. 2026From World Action Models to Embodied Brains: A Roadmap for Open-World Physical Intelligence
  8. 2025Embodied Web Agents: Bridging Physical-Digital Realms for Integrated Agent Intelligence