# CageCoOpt: Enhancing Manipulation Robustness through Caging-Guided Morphology and Policy Co-Optimization

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.11113 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.11113/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 17 Sep 2024.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [House of Dextra: Cross-embodied Co-design for Dexterous Hands](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.03743/) (2025)
- [Embodied Co-Design for Rapidly Evolving Agents: Taxonomy, Frontiers, and Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.04770/) (2025)
- [Sim-to-Real Gentle Manipulation of Deformable and Fragile Objects with Stress-Guided Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.25405/) (2025)
- [Latent Diffeomorphic Co-Design of End-Effectors for Deformable and Fragile Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.17921/) (2026)
- [ManiDreams: An Open-Source Library for Robust Object Manipulation via Uncertainty-aware Task-specific Intuitive Physics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.18336/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Uncertainties in contact dynamics and object geometry remain significant barriers to robust robotic manipulation. Caging mitigates these uncertainties by constraining an object's mobility without requiring precise contact modeling. However, existing caging research has largely treated morphology and policy optimization as separate problems, overlooking their inherent synergy. In this paper, we introduce CageCoOpt, a hierarchical framework that jointly optimizes manipulator morphology and control policy for robust manipulation. The framework employs reinforcement learning for policy optimization at the lower level and multi-task Bayesian optimization for morphology optimization at the upper level. A robustness metric in caging, Minimum Escape Energy, is incorporated into the objectives of both levels to promote caging configurations and enhance manipulation robustness. The evaluation results through four manipulation tasks demonstrate that co-optimizing morphology and policy improves success rates under uncertainties, establishing caging-guided co-optimization as a viable approach for robust manipulation.