# SplArt: Articulation Estimation and Part-Level Reconstruction with 3D Gaussian Splatting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.03594 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.03594/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 49 of its 71 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 4 Jun 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 49)

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [3D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.04079/) (2023)
- [ShapeNet: An Information-Rich 3D Model Repository](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03012/) (2015)
- [SAM 2: Segment Anything in Images and Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00714/) (2024)
- [DeepSDF: Learning Continuous Signed Distance Functions for Shape Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05103/) (2019)
- [Occupancy Networks: Learning 3D Reconstruction in Function Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.03828/) (2018)
- [NeuS: Learning Neural Implicit Surfaces by Volume Rendering for Multi-view Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10689/) (2021)
- [SuperGlue: Learning Feature Matching with Graph Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.11763/) (2019)
- [SuperPoint: Self-Supervised Interest Point Detection and Description](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.07629/) (2017)
- [A Point Set Generation Network for 3D Object Reconstruction from a Single Image](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.00603/) (2016)
- [UNISURF: Unifying Neural Implicit Surfaces and Radiance Fields for Multi-View Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.10078/) (2021)
- [SuGaR: Surface-Aligned Gaussian Splatting for Efficient 3D Mesh Reconstruction and High-Quality Mesh Rendering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12775/) (2023)
- [Nerfstudio: A Modular Framework for Neural Radiance Field Development](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.04264/) (2023)
- [SAPIEN: A SimulAted Part-based Interactive ENvironment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08515/) (2020)
- [3D-R2N2: A Unified Approach for Single and Multi-view 3D Object Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.00449/) (2016)
- [PartNet: A Large-scale Benchmark for Fine-grained and Hierarchical Part-level 3D Object Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02713/) (2018)
- [Neural Geometric Level of Detail: Real-time Rendering with Implicit 3D Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.10994/) (2021)
- [Category-Level Articulated Object Pose Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.11913/) (2019)
- [Ditto: Building Digital Twins of Articulated Objects from Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.08227/) (2022)
- [GAPartNet: Cross-Category Domain-Generalizable Object Perception and Manipulation via Generalizable and Actionable Parts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.05272/) (2022)
- [Shape2Motion: Joint Analysis of Motion Parts and Attributes from 3D Shapes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.03911/) (2019)
- [PARIS: Part-level Reconstruction and Motion Analysis for Articulated Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.07391/) (2023)
- [A-SDF: Learning Disentangled Signed Distance Functions for Articulated Shape Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.07645/) (2021)
- [Articulate-Anything: Automatic Modeling of Articulated Objects via a Vision-Language Foundation Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.13882/) (2024)
- [AKB-48: A Real-World Articulated Object Knowledge Base](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.08432/) (2022)
- [ShAPO: Implicit Representations for Multi-Object Shape, Appearance, and Pose Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.13691/) (2022)
- [ScrewNet: Category-Independent Articulation Model Estimation From Depth Images Using Screw Theory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2008.10518/) (2020)
- [CenterSnap: Single-Shot Multi-Object 3D Shape Reconstruction and Categorical 6D Pose and Size Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.01929/) (2022)
- [Neural Implicit Representation for Building Digital Twins of Unknown Articulated Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.01440/) (2024)
- [Real2Code: Reconstruct Articulated Objects via Code Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.08474/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [GaussianArt: Unified Modeling of Geometry and Motion for Articulated Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.14891/) (2025)
- [VideoArtGS: Building Digital Twins of Articulated Objects from Monocular Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.17647/) (2025)
- [Reconstruction by Generation: 3D Multi-Object Scene Reconstruction from Sparse Observations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.27106/) (2026)
- [FreeArtGS: Articulated Gaussian Splatting Under Free-moving Scenario](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.22102/) (2026)
- [GEAR: GEometry-motion Alternating Refinement for Articulated Object Modeling with Gaussian Splatting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.07728/) (2026)
- [ArtMesh: Part-Aware Articulated Mesh Fields with Motion-Consistent Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.16582/) (2026)
- [ArtSplat: Feed-Forward Articulated 3D Gaussian Splatting from Sparse Multi-State Uncalibrated Views](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.24304/) (2026)
- [ArtHOI: Articulated Human-Object Interaction Synthesis by 4D Reconstruction from Video Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.04338/) (2026)
- [ArtiTwinSplat: Interactable Digital Twin Reconstruction via Gaussian Splatting from RGB-D videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.24628/) (2026)
- [StructureGS: Structure-aware Gaussian Splatting for Articulated Object Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.26889/) (2026)
- [ArtLang: Structured Language-to-Kinematics Grounding for Articulated 3D Actuation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.15419/) (2026)
- [FAMOS: Feed-Forward 3D Articulation Modeling from Sparse Observations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.20817/) (2026)
- [ArticulateArena: A Metric for Articulated Kinematics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.33931/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Reconstructing articulated objects prevalent in daily environments is crucial for applications in augmented/virtual reality and robotics. However, existing methods face scalability limitations (requiring 3D supervision or costly annotations), robustness issues (being susceptible to local optima), and rendering shortcomings (lacking speed or photorealism). We introduce SplArt, a self-supervised, category-agnostic framework that leverages 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) to reconstruct articulated objects and infer kinematics from two sets of posed RGB images captured at different articulation states, enabling real-time photorealistic rendering for novel viewpoints and articulations. SplArt augments 3DGS with a differentiable mobility parameter per Gaussian, achieving refined part segmentation. A multi-stage optimization strategy is employed to progressively handle reconstruction, part segmentation, and articulation estimation, significantly enhancing robustness and accuracy. SplArt exploits geometric self-supervision, effectively addressing challenging scenarios without requiring 3D annotations or category-specific priors. Evaluations on established and newly proposed benchmarks, along with applications to real-world scenarios using a handheld RGB camera, demonstrate SplArt's state-of-the-art performance and real-world practicality. Code is publicly available at https://github.com/ripl/splart.