# CheckManual: A New Challenge and Benchmark for Manual-based Appliance Manipulation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09343 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09343/

## Key facts

- Cited by 7 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 29 of its 34 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Jun 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15818/) (2023)
- [OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09246/) (2024)
- [Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.01691/) (2022)
- [RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06817/) (2022)
- [VoxPoser: Composable 3D Value Maps for Robotic Manipulation with Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.05973/) (2023)
- [SAPIEN: A SimulAted Part-based Interactive ENvironment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08515/) (2020)
- [PartNet: A Large-scale Benchmark for Fine-grained and Hierarchical Part-level 3D Object Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02713/) (2018)
- [FoundationPose: Unified 6D Pose Estimation and Tracking of Novel Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.08344/) (2023)
- [Vision-Language Foundation Models as Effective Robot Imitators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.01378/) (2023)
- [ReKep: Spatio-Temporal Reasoning of Relational Keypoint Constraints for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.01652/) (2024)
- [SDXL-Lightning: Progressive Adversarial Diffusion Distillation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.13929/) (2024)
- [AnyGrasp: Robust and Efficient Grasp Perception in Spatial and Temporal Domains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08333/) (2022)
- [Precise and Dexterous Robotic Manipulation via Human-in-the-Loop Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.21845/) (2024)
- [ManipLLM: Embodied Multimodal Large Language Model for Object-Centric Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16217/) (2023)
- [InstructNav: Zero-shot System for Generic Instruction Navigation in Unexplored Environment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04882/) (2024)
- [RT-Trajectory: Robotic Task Generalization via Hindsight Trajectory Sketches](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.01977/) (2023)
- [Discuss Before Moving: Visual Language Navigation via Multi-expert Discussions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.11382/) (2023)
- [CoPa: General Robotic Manipulation through Spatial Constraints of Parts with Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.08248/) (2024)
- [LiDAR-LLM: Exploring the Potential of Large Language Models for 3D LiDAR Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14074/) (2023)
- [VAT-Mart: Learning Visual Action Trajectory Proposals for Manipulating 3D ARTiculated Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.14440/) (2021)
- [Bridging Zero-shot Object Navigation and Foundation Models through Pixel-Guided Navigation Skill](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.10309/) (2023)
- [OmniManip: Towards General Robotic Manipulation via Object-Centric Interaction Primitives as Spatial Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03841/) (2025)
- [Omni6DPose: A Benchmark and Model for Universal 6D Object Pose Estimation and Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04316/) (2024)
- [GenPose: Generative Category-level Object Pose Estimation via Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.10531/) (2023)
- [Question Answering over Electronic Devices: A New Benchmark Dataset and a Multi-Task Learning based QA Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.05897/) (2021)
- [SARA-RT: Scaling up Robotics Transformers with Self-Adaptive Robust Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.01990/) (2023)
- [MPMQA: Multimodal Question Answering on Product Manuals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.09660/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 7 of 7)

- [Embodied3DBench: Benchmarking Low-Level Embodied Spatial Intelligence of Vision Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.29074/) (2026)
- [RealAppliance: Let High-fidelity Appliance Assets Controllable and Workable as Aligned Real Manuals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.00287/) (2025)
- [Anticipation-VLA: Solving Long-Horizon Embodied Tasks via Anticipation-based Subgoal Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.01772/) (2026)
- [AssemblyBench: Physics-Aware Assembly of Complex Industrial Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.12845/) (2026)
- [Lost in Instructions: Study of Blind Users' Experiences with DIY Manuals and AI-Rewritten Instructions for Assembly, Operation, and Troubleshooting of Tangible Products](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.18630/) (2026)
- [KD-Judge: A Knowledge-Driven Automated Judge Framework for Functional Fitness Movements on Edge Devices](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.19834/) (2026)
- [Scaling Manual-Grounded Appliance Manipulation with Data Synthesis and Unified Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.15863/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Correct use of electrical appliances has significantly improved human life quality. Unlike simple tools that can be manipulated with common sense, different parts of electrical appliances have specific functions defined by manufacturers. If we want the robot to heat bread by microwave, we should enable them to review the microwave manual first. From the manual, it can learn about component functions, interaction methods, and representative task steps about appliances. However, previous manual-related works remain limited to question-answering tasks while existing manipulation researchers ignore the manual's important role and fail to comprehend multi-page manuals. In this paper, we propose the first manual-based appliance manipulation benchmark CheckManual. Specifically, we design a large model-assisted human-revised data generation pipeline to create manuals based on CAD appliance models. With these manuals, we establish novel manual-based manipulation challenges, metrics, and simulator environments for model performance evaluation. Furthermore, we propose the first manual-based manipulation planning model ManualPlan to set up a group of baselines for the CheckManual benchmark.
