# Learning to Manipulate Anywhere: A Visual Generalizable Framework For Reinforcement Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.15815 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15815/

## Key facts

- Cited by 41 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in RL for robot locomotion and manipulation, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods.
- Builds on 56 of its 60 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 22 Jul 2024.

## Placed in

- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [RL for robot locomotion and manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/rl-for-robot-locomotion-and-manipulation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 56)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [Masked Autoencoders Are Scalable Vision Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.06377/) (2021)
- [Grad-CAM: Visual Explanations from Deep Networks via Gradient-based Localization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1610.02391/) (2016)
- [Bootstrap your own latent: A new approach to self-supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.07733/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.04137/) (2023)
- [An Empirical Study of Training Self-Supervised Vision Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.02057/) (2021)
- [Spatial Transformer Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1506.02025/) (2015)
- [R3M: A Universal Visual Representation for Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12601/) (2022)
- [Evaluating Real-World Robot Manipulation Policies in Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.05941/) (2024)
- [Time-Contrastive Networks: Self-Supervised Learning from Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.06888/) (2017)
- [A Tale of Two Features: Stable Diffusion Complements DINO for Zero-Shot Semantic Correspondence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.15347/) (2023)
- [Masked Visual Pre-training for Motor Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.06173/) (2022)
- [RVT: Robotic View Transformer for 3D Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14896/) (2023)
- [Scaling Robot Learning with Semantically Imagined Experience](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.11550/) (2023)
- [Language-Driven Representation Learning for Robotics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12766/) (2023)
- [Temporal Cycle-Consistency Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.07846/) (2019)
- [DeXtreme: Transfer of Agile In-hand Manipulation from Simulation to Reality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.13702/) (2022)
- [Generalization in Reinforcement Learning by Soft Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13389/) (2020)
- [THE COLOSSEUM: A Benchmark for Evaluating Generalization for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.08191/) (2024)
- [Self-Supervised Policy Adaptation during Deployment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.04309/) (2020)
- [XIRL: Cross-embodiment Inverse Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.03911/) (2021)
- [Stabilizing Deep Q-Learning with ConvNets and Vision Transformers under Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.00644/) (2021)
- [GNFactor: Multi-Task Real Robot Learning with Generalizable Neural Feature Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.16891/) (2023)
- [Decomposing the Generalization Gap in Imitation Learning for Visual Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.03659/) (2023)
- [Multi-View Masked World Models for Visual Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.02408/) (2023)
- [LEAP Hand: Low-Cost, Efficient, and Anthropomorphic Hand for Robot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.06440/) (2023)
- [Robo-ABC: Affordance Generalization Beyond Categories via Semantic Correspondence for Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.07487/) (2024)
- [Pre-Trained Image Encoder for Generalizable Visual Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08860/) (2022)
- [TRANSIC: Sim-to-Real Policy Transfer by Learning from Online Correction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.10315/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 41)

- [SimpleVLA-RL: Scaling VLA Training via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.09674/) (2025)
- [DexGraspVLA: A Vision-Language-Action Framework Towards General Dexterous Grasping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.20900/) (2025)
- [SplatSim: Zero-Shot Sim2Real Transfer of RGB Manipulation Policies Using Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.10161/) (2024)
- [Diffusion-VLA: Generalizable and Interpretable Robot Foundation Model via Self-Generated Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03293/) (2024)
- [Generalizable Humanoid Manipulation with 3D Diffusion Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.10803/) (2024)
- [SoFar: Language-Grounded Orientation Bridges Spatial Reasoning and Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13143/) (2025)
- [A Survey of Sim-to-Real Methods in RL: Progress, Prospects and Challenges with Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13187/) (2025)
- [Run-time Observation Interventions Make Vision-Language-Action Models More Visually Robust](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.01971/) (2024)
- [RLinf-VLA: A Unified and Efficient Framework for Reinforcement Learning of Vision-Language-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.06710/) (2025)
- [H3DP: Triply-Hierarchical Diffusion Policy for Visuomotor Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.07819/) (2025)
- [Opening the Sim-to-Real Door for Humanoid Pixel-to-Action Policy Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.01061/) (2025)
- [Effective Tuning Strategies for Generalist Robot Manipulation Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.01220/) (2024)
- [Generalizable Domain Adaptation for Sim-and-Real Policy Co-Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.18631/) (2025)
- [Tool-as-Interface: Learning Robot Policies from Observing Human Tool Use](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.04612/) (2025)
- [Robot Trains Robot: Automatic Real-World Policy Adaptation and Learning for Humanoids](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.12252/) (2025)
- [AnyBody: A Benchmark Suite for Cross-Embodiment Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.14986/) (2025)
- [ManiVID-3D: Generalizable View-Invariant Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Manipulation via Disentangled 3D Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.11125/) (2025)
- [ViTaS: Visual Tactile Soft Fusion Contrastive Learning for Visuomotor Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.11643/) (2026)
- [ManiBox: Enhancing Embodied Spatial Generalization via Scalable Simulation Data Generations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.01850/) (2024)
- [Stem-OB: Generalizable Visual Imitation Learning with Stem-Like Convergent Observation through Diffusion Inversion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.04919/) (2024)
- [Scene Graph-Guided Proactive Replanning for Failure-Resilient Embodied Agent](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.11286/) (2025)
- [Bridging the Sim2Real Gap: Vision Encoder Pre-Training for Visuomotor Policy Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.16389/) (2025)
- [Wheeled Lab: Modern Sim2Real for Low-cost, Open-source Wheeled Robotics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.07380/) (2025)
- [Merging and Disentangling Views in Visual Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.04619/) (2025)
- [Squint: Fast Visual Reinforcement Learning for Sim-to-Real Robotics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.21203/) (2026)
- [DreamSAC: Learning Hamiltonian World Models via Symmetry Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.07545/) (2026)
- [3D Generation for Embodied AI and Robotic Simulation: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.26509/) (2026)
- [HALO-WA: Hybrid-Attention Latent-Guided Online Reinforcement Learning for World-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.04265/) (2026)
- [FunGrasp: Functional Grasping for Diverse Dexterous Hands](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.16755/) (2024)
- [A Visual Reinforcement Learning-Based Separate Primitive Policy for Peg-in-Hole Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14820/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Can we endow visuomotor robots with generalization capabilities to operate in diverse open-world scenarios? In this paper, we propose Maniwhere, a generalizable framework tailored for visual reinforcement learning, enabling the trained robot policies to generalize across a combination of multiple visual disturbance types. Specifically, we introduce a multi-view representation learning approach fused with Spatial Transformer Network (STN) module to capture shared semantic information and correspondences among different viewpoints. In addition, we employ a curriculum-based randomization and augmentation approach to stabilize the RL training process and strengthen the visual generalization ability. To exhibit the effectiveness of Maniwhere, we meticulously design 8 tasks encompassing articulate objects, bi-manual, and dexterous hand manipulation tasks, demonstrating Maniwhere's strong visual generalization and sim2real transfer abilities across 3 hardware platforms. Our experiments show that Maniwhere significantly outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods. Videos are provided at https://gemcollector.github.io/maniwhere/.