mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Dexterous Manipulation through Imitation Learning: A Survey

arXiv 2504.03515 ↗First posted 4 Apr 2025cs.RO cs.LGcited by 18

On the map: Offline RL and imitation learning from data → Robot manipulation imitation learning

Abstract (arXiv)

Dexterous manipulation, which refers to the ability of a robotic hand or multi-fingered end-effector to skillfully control, reorient, and manipulate objects through precise, coordinated finger movements and adaptive force modulation, enables complex interactions similar to human hand dexterity. With recent advances in robotics and machine learning, there is a growing demand for these systems to operate in complex and unstructured environments. Traditional model-based approaches struggle to generalize across tasks and object variations due to the high dimensionality and complex contact dynamics of dexterous manipulation. Although model-free methods such as reinforcement learning (RL) show promise, they require extensive training, large-scale interaction data, and carefully designed rewards for stability and effectiveness. Imitation learning (IL) offers an alternative by allowing robots to acquire dexterous manipulation skills directly from expert demonstrations, capturing fine-grained coordination and contact dynamics while bypassing the need for explicit modeling and large-scale trial-and-error. This survey provides an overview of dexterous manipulation methods based on imitation learning, details recent advances, and addresses key challenges in the field. Additionally, it explores potential research directions to enhance IL-driven dexterous manipulation. Our goal is to offer researchers and practitioners a comprehensive introduction to this rapidly evolving domain.

Key facts. Cited by 18 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 148 of its 361 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Apr 2025.

Builds on

148 of 361 references.

Closest ancestors · 37

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025NIL: No-data Imitation Learning by Leveraging Pre-trained Video Diffusion Models13 Mar
  2. 2024Bunny-VisionPro: Real-Time Bimanual Dexterous Teleoperation for Imitation Learning3 Jul
  3. 2024Open-TeleVision: Teleoperation with Immersive Active Visual Feedback1 Jul
  4. 2024IntervenGen: Interventional Data Generation for Robust and Data-Efficient Robot Imitation Learning2 May
  5. 2024DexCap: Scalable and Portable Mocap Data Collection System for Dexterous Manipulation12 Mar
  6. 2024Bi-KVIL: Keypoints-based Visual Imitation Learning of Bimanual Manipulation Tasks5 Mar
  7. 2024CyberDemo: Augmenting Simulated Human Demonstration for Real-World Dexterous Manipulation22 Feb
  8. 2024Mobile ALOHA: Learning Bimanual Mobile Manipulation with Low-Cost Whole-Body Teleoperation4 Jan
  9. 2023LOTUS: Continual Imitation Learning for Robot Manipulation Through Unsupervised Skill Discovery3 Nov
  10. 2023Multimodal and Force-Matched Imitation Learning with a See-Through Visuotactile Sensor2 Nov
  11. 2023MimicGen: A Data Generation System for Scalable Robot Learning using Human Demonstrations26 Oct
  12. 2023TAIL: Task-specific Adapters for Imitation Learning with Large Pretrained Models9 Oct
25 more
  1. 2023GELLO: A General, Low-Cost, and Intuitive Teleoperation Framework for Robot Manipulators22 Sep
  2. 2023BridgeData V2: A Dataset for Robot Learning at Scale24 Aug
  3. 2023Waypoint-Based Imitation Learning for Robotic Manipulation26 Jul
  4. 2023XSkill: Cross Embodiment Skill Discovery19 Jul
  5. 2023HYDRA: Hybrid Robot Actions for Imitation Learning29 Jun
  6. 2023Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardware23 Apr
  7. 2023Teach a Robot to FISH: Versatile Imitation from One Minute of Demonstrations2 Mar
  8. 2023Diffusion Model-Augmented Behavioral Cloning26 Feb
  9. 2023MimicPlay: Long-Horizon Imitation Learning by Watching Human Play24 Feb
  10. 2022Accelerating Interactive Human-like Manipulation Learning with GPU-based Simulation and High-quality Demonstrations5 Dec
  11. 2022Learning and Retrieval from Prior Data for Skill-based Imitation Learning20 Oct
  12. 2022Graph Inverse Reinforcement Learning from Diverse Videos28 Jul
  13. 2022Behavior Transformers: Cloning k modes with one stone22 Jun
  14. 2022From One Hand to Multiple Hands: Imitation Learning for Dexterous Manipulation from Single-Camera Teleoperation26 Apr
  15. 2022Dexterous Imitation Made Easy: A Learning-Based Framework for Efficient Dexterous Manipulation24 Mar
  16. 2022Goal-conditioned dual-action imitation learning for dexterous dual-arm robot manipulation18 Mar
  17. 2022Training Robots without Robots: Deep Imitation Learning for Master-to-Robot Policy Transfer19 Feb
  18. 2022BC-Z: Zero-Shot Task Generalization with Robotic Imitation Learning4 Feb
  19. 2021DexMV: Imitation Learning for Dexterous Manipulation from Human Videos12 Aug
  20. 2021CRIL: Continual Robot Imitation Learning via Generative and Prediction Model17 Jun
  21. 2020Grasping with Chopsticks: Combating Covariate Shift in Model-free Imitation Learning for Fine Manipulation13 Nov
  22. 2020Deep Imitation Learning for Bimanual Robotic Manipulation11 Oct
  23. 2020Learning to Generalize Across Long-Horizon Tasks from Human Demonstrations13 Mar
  24. 2018CompILE: Compositional Imitation Learning and Execution4 Dec
  25. 2018RoboTurk: A Crowdsourcing Platform for Robotic Skill Learning through Imitation7 Nov

Other references · 111

  1. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 14,441
  2. 2022Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 5,603
  3. 2016Overcoming catastrophic forgetting in neural networkscited by 4,718
  4. 2015Continuous control with deep reinforcement learningcited by 3,279
  5. 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusioncited by 2,730
  6. 2016Generative Adversarial Imitation Learningcited by 1,576
  7. 2017Domain Randomization for Transferring Deep Neural Networks from Simulation to the Real Worldcited by 1,401
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  11. 2017Constrained Policy Optimizationcited by 928
  12. 2024DROID: A Large-Scale In-The-Wild Robot Manipulation Datasetcited by 801
38 more
  1. 2017Learning Complex Dexterous Manipulation with Deep Reinforcement Learning and Demonstrationscited by 685
  2. 2019RLBench: The Robot Learning Benchmark & Learning Environmentcited by 669
  3. 2018An Algorithmic Perspective on Imitation Learningcited by 455
  4. 2021Implicit Behavioral Cloningcited by 442
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  6. 2016Guided Cost Learning: Deep Inverse Optimal Control via Policy Optimizationcited by 400
  7. 2020GRAB: A Dataset of Whole-Body Human Grasping of Objectscited by 397
  8. 2024Universal Manipulation Interface: In-The-Wild Robot Teaching Without In-The-Wild Robotscited by 373
  9. 2020Transporter Networks: Rearranging the Visual World for Robotic Manipulationcited by 342
  10. 2022ARCTIC: A Dataset for Dexterous Bimanual Hand-Object Manipulationcited by 306
  11. 2018A Survey of Inverse Reinforcement Learning: Challenges, Methods and Progresscited by 294
  12. 2017Deep Imitation Learning for Complex Manipulation Tasks from Virtual Reality Teleoperationcited by 286
  13. 2018A Lyapunov-based Approach to Safe Reinforcement Learningcited by 278
  14. 20243D Diffuser Actor: Policy Diffusion with 3D Scene Representationscited by 278
  15. 2021Bridge Data: Boosting Generalization of Robotic Skills with Cross-Domain Datasetscited by 248
  16. 2022Real-World Robot Learning with Masked Visual Pre-trainingcited by 241
  17. 2024ManiSkill3: GPU Parallelized Robotics Simulation and Rendering for Generalizable Embodied AIcited by 216
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  19. 2017Imitation from Observation: Learning to Imitate Behaviors from Raw Video via Context Translationcited by 167
  20. 2023RoboAgent: Generalization and Efficiency in Robot Manipulation via Semantic Augmentations and Action Chunkingcited by 167
  21. 2019Goal-conditioned Imitation Learningcited by 159
  22. 2023A Survey of Imitation Learning: Algorithms, Recent Developments, and Challengescited by 145
  23. 2020Neural Lyapunov Controlcited by 142
  24. 2024Gen2Act: Human Video Generation in Novel Scenarios enables Generalizable Robot Manipulationcited by 142
  25. 2022DeXtreme: Transfer of Agile In-hand Manipulation from Simulation to Realitycited by 136
  26. 2023AnyTeleop: A General Vision-Based Dexterous Robot Arm-Hand Teleoperation Systemcited by 136
  27. 2022DexGraspNet: A Large-Scale Robotic Dexterous Grasp Dataset for General Objects Based on Simulationcited by 129
  28. 2018Variational Option Discovery Algorithmscited by 121
  29. 2024Track2Act: Predicting Point Tracks from Internet Videos enables Generalizable Robot Manipulationcited by 116
  30. 2019DexPilot: Vision Based Teleoperation of Dexterous Robotic Hand-Arm Systemcited by 105
  31. 2019Grasping in the Wild:Learning 6DoF Closed-Loop Grasping from Low-Cost Demonstrationscited by 104
  32. 2022VideoDex: Learning Dexterity from Internet Videoscited by 101
  33. 2022Instruction-driven history-aware policies for robotic manipulationscited by 93
  34. 2017Robust Imitation of Diverse Behaviorscited by 85
  35. 2019IRIS: Implicit Reinforcement without Interaction at Scale for Learning Control from Offline Robot Manipulation Datacited by 85
  36. 2018Dexterous Manipulation with Deep Reinforcement Learning: Efficient, General, and Low-Costcited by 79
  37. 2022Robotic Telekinesis: Learning a Robotic Hand Imitator by Watching Humans on Youtubecited by 79
  38. 2023Rotating without Seeing: Towards In-hand Dexterity through Touchcited by 78

50 most cited of 111 All 111 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 10; 2026: 8.

18 papers.

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  1. 2025Being-H0: Vision-Language-Action Pretraining from Large-Scale Human Videoscited by 94
  2. 2025World Models for Learning Dexterous Hand-Object Interactions from Human Videoscited by 26
  3. 2025A Survey on Imitation Learning for Contact-Rich Tasks in Roboticscited by 12
  4. 2025HumanoidGen: Data Generation for Bimanual Dexterous Manipulation via LLM Reasoningcited by 12
  5. 2025Dexplore: Scalable Neural Control for Dexterous Manipulation from Reference-Scoped Explorationcited by 9
  6. 2025Compose Your Policies! Improving Diffusion-based or Flow-based Robot Policies via Test-time Distribution-level Compositioncited by 8
  7. 2026From Abstraction to Instantiation: Learning Behavioral Representation for Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 5
  8. 2025Interactive Imitation Learning for Dexterous Robotic Manipulation: Challenges and Perspectives -- A Surveycited by 3
  9. 2026DECO: Decoupled Multimodal Diffusion Transformer for Bimanual Dexterous Manipulation with a Plugin Tactile Adaptercited by 3
  10. 2026Towards Human-Like Manipulation through RL-Augmented Teleoperation and Mixture-of-Dexterous-Experts VLAcited by 3
  11. 2026DiscreteRTC: Discrete Diffusion Policies are Natural Asynchronous Executorscited by 3
  12. 2025Grasp2Grasp: Vision-Based Dexterous Grasp Translation via Schr"odinger Bridgescited by 2
6 more
  1. 2025Blindfolded Experts Generalize Better: Insights from Robotic Manipulation and Videogamescited by 1
  2. 2026Refinement of Accelerated Demonstrations via Incremental Iterative Reference Learning Control for Fast Contact-Rich Imitation Learningcited by 1
  3. 2026Not All Actions Are Equal: Rethinking Conditioning for Dexterous World Modelcited by 1
  4. 2025Multi-Goal Dexterous Hand Manipulation using Probabilistic Model-based Reinforcement Learningcited by 0
  5. 2026Learning Dexterous Grasping from Sparse Taxonomy Guidancecited by 0
  6. 2026When Dynamics Shift, Robust Task Inference Wins: Offline Imitation Learning with Behavior Foundation Models Revisitedcited by 0

Similar, not cited

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  1. 2025Robotic Manipulation via Imitation Learning: Taxonomy, Evolution, Benchmark, and Challenges
  2. 2024ALOHA Unleashed: A Simple Recipe for Robot Dexterity
  3. 2024Precise and Dexterous Robotic Manipulation via Human-in-the-Loop Reinforcement Learning
  4. 2025Towards Human-level Dexterity via Robot Learning
  5. 2026Dexterous Point Policy: Learning Point-based Dexterous Hand Policies from Human Demonstrations
  6. 2020State-Only Imitation Learning for Dexterous Manipulation
  7. 2022Learning Generalizable Dexterous Manipulation from Human Grasp Affordance
  8. 2025RoboManipBaselines: A Unified Framework for Imitation Learning in Robotic Manipulation across Real and Simulation Environments