# MetaUrban: An Embodied AI Simulation Platform for Urban Micromobility

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.08725 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.08725/

## Key facts

- Cited by 21 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in World models for autonomous driving, one of 11 directions in World models.
- Builds on 58 of its 81 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Jul 2024.

## Placed in

- World models / [World models for autonomous driving](https://mlsanity.com/wm/world-models-for-autonomous-driving/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 58)

- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Sentence-BERT: Sentence Embeddings using Siamese BERT-Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.10084/) (2019)
- [Visual Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08485/) (2023)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [BLIP-2: Bootstrapping Language-Image Pre-training with Frozen Image Encoders and Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.12597/) (2023)
- [The Cityscapes Dataset for Semantic Urban Scene Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.01685/) (2016)
- [BLIP: Bootstrapping Language-Image Pre-training for Unified Vision-Language Understanding and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.12086/) (2022)
- [Generative Agents: Interactive Simulacra of Human Behavior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03442/) (2023)
- [Grounding DINO: Marrying DINO with Grounded Pre-Training for Open-Set Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.05499/) (2023)
- [DreamFusion: Text-to-3D using 2D Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14988/) (2022)
- [CARLA: An Open Urban Driving Simulator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.03938/) (2017)
- [Expressive Body Capture: 3D Hands, Face, and Body from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.05866/) (2019)
- [Generative Adversarial Imitation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.03476/) (2016)
- [Objaverse: A Universe of Annotated 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08051/) (2022)
- [Zero-1-to-3: Zero-shot One Image to 3D Object](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.11328/) (2023)
- [Offline Reinforcement Learning with Implicit Q-Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.06169/) (2021)
- [Habitat: A Platform for Embodied AI Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.01201/) (2019)
- [Grounded SAM: Assembling Open-World Models for Diverse Visual Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.14159/) (2024)
- [A Minimalist Approach to Offline Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.06860/) (2021)
- [AI2-THOR: An Interactive 3D Environment for Visual AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.05474/) (2017)
- [Objaverse-XL: A Universe of 10M+ 3D Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.05663/) (2023)
- [On Evaluation of Embodied Navigation Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.06757/) (2018)
- [AirSim: High-Fidelity Visual and Physical Simulation for Autonomous Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.05065/) (2017)
- [Habitat 2.0: Training Home Assistants to Rearrange their Habitat](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.14405/) (2021)
- [VirtualHome: Simulating Household Activities via Programs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.07011/) (2018)
- [ProcTHOR: Large-Scale Embodied AI Using Procedural Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.06994/) (2022)
- [OmniObject3D: Large-Vocabulary 3D Object Dataset for Realistic Perception, Reconstruction and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.07525/) (2023)
- [Text-to-3D using Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16585/) (2023)
- [MetaDrive: Composing Diverse Driving Scenarios for Generalizable Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.12674/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [SimWorld Studio: Automatic Environment Generation with Evolving Coding Agent for Embodied Agent Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.09423/) (2026)
- [Towards Autonomous Micromobility through Scalable Urban Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.00690/) (2025)
- [Thinking in 360deg: Humanoid Visual Search in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.20351/) (2025)
- [SimWorld: An Open-ended Realistic Simulator for Autonomous Agents in Physical and Social Worlds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.01078/) (2025)
- [SimWorld-Robotics: Synthesizing Photorealistic and Dynamic Urban Environments for Multimodal Robot Navigation and Collaboration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.10046/) (2025)
- [Dreamland: Controllable World Creation with Simulator and Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08006/) (2025)
- [LatticeWorld: A Multimodal Large Language Model-Empowered Framework for Interactive Complex World Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.05263/) (2025)
- [UrbanVerse: Scaling Urban Simulation by Watching City-Tour Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.15018/) (2025)
- [From 2D to 3D Cognition: A Brief Survey of General World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.20134/) (2025)
- [SPEAR: A Simulator for Photorealistic Embodied AI Research](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.06701/) (2026)
- [UrbanVLA: A Vision-Language-Action Model for Urban Micromobility](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.23576/) (2025)
- [Unreal Robotics Lab: A High-Fidelity Robotics Simulator with Advanced Physics and Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14135/) (2025)
- [DeliveryGym: An RL Environment for Long-Horizon Embodied Agent Planning with Adaptive Curriculum](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.19801/) (2026)
- [360CityArena: A Realistic Virtual Urban Navigation Benchmark for Embodied Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.08814/) (2026)
- [UrbanGround: From Local Perception to Spatial Agency in a Real-Scale City](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.27456/) (2026)
- [Towards Embodied Air-Ground Cooperative Object Search: Benchmark, Dataset and Agentic Method](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.08402/) (2026)
- [GRAIL: Autonomous Concept Grounding for Neuro-Symbolic Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.16871/) (2026)
- [Lingjing: A Simulation Testbed for Multi-Agent Embodied Tasks in Open-Ended Cities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.08045/) (2026)
- [Sim-to-Real Aware End-to-End Learning Environment for Micromobility](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.28969/) (2026)
- [Taming an End-to-End Autonomous Driving Policy for Urban Navigation of Quadruped Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.08812/) (2026)
- [CityCode: Building Agent-Operable 3D Cities from Sparse Aerial Observations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.18342/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Public urban spaces like streetscapes and plazas serve residents and accommodate social life in all its vibrant variations. Recent advances in Robotics and Embodied AI make public urban spaces no longer exclusive to humans. Food delivery bots and electric wheelchairs have started sharing sidewalks with pedestrians, while robot dogs and humanoids have recently emerged in the street. Micromobility enabled by AI for short-distance travel in public urban spaces plays a crucial component in the future transportation system. Ensuring the generalizability and safety of AI models maneuvering mobile machines is essential. In this work, we present MetaUrban, a compositional simulation platform for the AI-driven urban micromobility research. MetaUrban can construct an infinite number of interactive urban scenes from compositional elements, covering a vast array of ground plans, object placements, pedestrians, vulnerable road users, and other mobile agents' appearances and dynamics. We design point navigation and social navigation tasks as the pilot study using MetaUrban for urban micromobility research and establish various baselines of Reinforcement Learning and Imitation Learning. We conduct extensive evaluation across mobile machines, demonstrating that heterogeneous mechanical structures significantly influence the learning and execution of AI policies. We perform a thorough ablation study, showing that the compositional nature of the simulated environments can substantially improve the generalizability and safety of the trained mobile agents. MetaUrban will be made publicly available to provide research opportunities and foster safe and trustworthy embodied AI and micromobility in cities. The code and dataset will be publicly available.