ModSkill: Physical Character Skill Modularization
On the map: Offline RL and imitation learning from data → Robot manipulation imitation learning
Abstract (arXiv)
Human motion is highly diverse and dynamic, posing challenges for imitation learning algorithms that aim to generalize motor skills for controlling simulated characters. Previous methods typically rely on a universal full-body controller for tracking reference motion (tracking-based model) or a unified full-body skill embedding space (skill embedding). However, these approaches often struggle to generalize and scale to larger motion datasets. In this work, we introduce a novel skill learning framework, ModSkill, that decouples complex full-body skills into compositional, modular skills for independent body parts. Our framework features a skill modularization attention layer that processes policy observations into modular skill embeddings that guide low-level controllers for each body part. We also propose an Active Skill Learning approach with Generative Adaptive Sampling, using large motion generation models to adaptively enhance policy learning in challenging tracking scenarios. Our results show that this modularized skill learning framework, enhanced by generative sampling, outperforms existing methods in precise full-body motion tracking and enables reusable skill embeddings for diverse goal-driven tasks.
Key facts. Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Robot manipulation imitation learning, one of 13 directions in Offline RL and imitation learning from data. Builds on 45 of its 72 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 19 Feb 2025.
Builds on
45 of 72 references.
Closest ancestors · 1
Same direction, newest first
Other references · 44
- 2019AMASS: Archive of Motion Capture as Surface Shapescited by 1,208
- 2022Human Motion Diffusion Modelcited by 1,062
- 2021Isaac Gym: High Performance GPU-Based Physics Simulation For Robot Learningcited by 882
- 2023T2M-GPT: Generating Human Motion from Textual Descriptions with Discrete Representationscited by 577
- 2022Executing your Commands via Motion Diffusion in Latent Spacecited by 567
- 2023MotionGPT: Human Motion as a Foreign Languagecited by 521
- 2023BEDLAM: A Synthetic Dataset of Bodies Exhibiting Detailed Lifelike Animated Motioncited by 229
- 2021Stochastic Scene-Aware Motion Predictioncited by 203
- 2023Perpetual Humanoid Control for Real-time Simulated Avatarscited by 198
- 2021Character Controllers Using Motion VAEscited by 182
- 2024OmniH2O: Universal and Dexterous Human-to-Humanoid Whole-Body Teleoperation and Learningcited by 167
- 2024Learning Human-to-Humanoid Real-Time Whole-Body Teleoperationcited by 112
32 more
- 2023Universal Humanoid Motion Representations for Physics-Based Controlcited by 109
- 2019MCP: Learning Composable Hierarchical Control with Multiplicative Compositional Policiescited by 105
- 2023FineMoGen: Fine-Grained Spatio-Temporal Motion Generation and Editingcited by 105
- 2024CLoSD: Closing the Loop between Simulation and Diffusion for multi-task character controlcited by 103
- 2023Synthesizing Physical Character-Scene Interactionscited by 102
- 2021Dynamics-Regulated Kinematic Policy for Egocentric Pose Estimationcited by 101
- 2024MaskedMimic: Unified Physics-Based Character Control Through Masked Motion Inpaintingcited by 101
- 2018Neural probabilistic motor primitives for humanoid controlcited by 96
- 2023TLControl: Trajectory and Language Control for Human Motion Synthesiscited by 93
- 2022Towards Diverse and Natural Scene-aware 3D Human Motion Synthesiscited by 91
- 2023CALM: Conditional Adversarial Latent Models for Directable Virtual Characterscited by 91
- 2023EMDM: Efficient Motion Diffusion Model for Fast and High-Quality Motion Generationcited by 88
- 2022QuestSim: Human Motion Tracking from Sparse Sensors with Simulated Avatarscited by 74
- 2024CoMo: Controllable Motion Generation through Language Guided Pose Code Editingcited by 66
- 2022Motion Puzzle: Arbitrary Motion Style Transfer by Body Partcited by 64
- 2020Residual Force Control for Agile Human Behavior Imitation and Extended Motion Synthesiscited by 63
- 2023C·ASE: Learning Conditional Adversarial Skill Embeddings for Physics-based Characterscited by 53
- 2023PADL: Language-Directed Physics-Based Character Controlcited by 47
- 2023PMP: Learning to Physically Interact with Environments using Part-wise Motion Priorscited by 38
- 2023Neural Categorical Priors for Physics-Based Character Controlcited by 37
- 2023Template Free Reconstruction of Human-object Interaction with Procedural Interaction Generationcited by 37
- 2024Self-Correcting Self-Consuming Loops for Generative Model Trainingcited by 34
- 2023Composite Motion Learning with Task Controlcited by 26
- 2022MoCapAct: A Multi-Task Dataset for Simulated Humanoid Controlcited by 24
- 2024PACER+: On-Demand Pedestrian Animation Controller in Driving Scenarioscited by 24
- 2023InsActor: Instruction-driven Physics-based Characterscited by 23
- 2022Action-conditioned On-demand Motion Generationcited by 18
- 2024Real-Time Simulated Avatar from Head-Mounted Sensorscited by 17
- 2024SuperPADL: Scaling Language-Directed Physics-Based Control with Progressive Supervised Distillationcited by 16
- 2024FLD: Fourier Latent Dynamics for Structured Motion Representation and Learningcited by 14
- 2024SIMS: Simulating Stylized Human-Scene Interactions with Retrieval-Augmented Script Generationcited by 12
- 2022From Universal Humanoid Control to Automatic Physically Valid Character Creationcited by 11
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 6; 2026: 1.
7 papers.
- 2025Go to Zero: Towards Zero-shot Motion Generation with Million-scale Datacited by 67
- 2025MOSPA: Human Motion Generation Driven by Spatial Audiocited by 11
- 2025Text2Interact: High-Fidelity and Diverse Text-to-Two-Person Interaction Generationcited by 10
- 2025Auto-Connect: Connectivity-Preserving RigFormer with Direct Preference Optimizationcited by 7
- 2025EgoReAct: Egocentric Video-Driven 3D Human Reaction Generationcited by 7
- 2025InterAgent: Physics-based Multi-agent Command Execution via Diffusion on Interaction Graphscited by 4
- 2026TeamHOI: Learning a Unified Policy for Cooperative Human-Object Interactions with Any Team Sizecited by 4
- 2026TeamHOI: Learning a Unified Policy for Cooperative Human-Object Interactions with Any Team Size9 Mar 2026
- 2025EgoReAct: Egocentric Video-Driven 3D Human Reaction Generation28 Dec 2025
- 2025InterAgent: Physics-based Multi-agent Command Execution via Diffusion on Interaction Graphs8 Dec 2025
- 2025Text2Interact: High-Fidelity and Diverse Text-to-Two-Person Interaction Generation7 Oct 2025
- 2025MOSPA: Human Motion Generation Driven by Spatial Audio16 Jul 2025
- 2025Go to Zero: Towards Zero-shot Motion Generation with Million-scale Data9 Jul 2025
- 2025Auto-Connect: Connectivity-Preserving RigFormer with Direct Preference Optimization13 Jun 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2022ASE: Large-Scale Reusable Adversarial Skill Embeddings for Physically Simulated Characters
- 2023XSkill: Cross Embodiment Skill Discovery
- 2025Generating Physically Realistic and Directable Human Motions from Multi-Modal Inputs
- 2025NIL: No-data Imitation Learning by Leveraging Pre-trained Video Diffusion Models
- 2024Interactive incremental learning of generalizable skills with local trajectory modulation
- 2026SkillMemo: Expert-guided Skill Memory Framework for Compositional Embodied Manipulation
- 2025SMP: Reusable Score-Matching Motion Priors for Physics-Based Character Control
- 2026Towards Embodied AI with MuscleMimic: Unlocking full-body musculoskeletal motor learning at scale