# OmniRetarget: Interaction-Preserving Data Generation for Humanoid Whole-Body Loco-Manipulation and Scene Interaction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.26633 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.26633/

## Key facts

- Cited by 71 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in RL for robot locomotion and manipulation, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods.
- Builds on 39 of its 65 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 30 Sep 2025.

## Placed in

- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [RL for robot locomotion and manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/rl-for-robot-locomotion-and-manipulation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 39)

- [Learning Quadrupedal Locomotion over Challenging Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11251/) (2020)
- [MimicGen: A Data Generation System for Scalable Robot Learning using Human Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.17596/) (2023)
- [Robust Motion In-betweening](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.04942/) (2021)
- [Perpetual Humanoid Control for Real-time Simulated Avatars](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06456/) (2023)
- [Object Motion Guided Human Motion Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16237/) (2023)
- [OmniH2O: Universal and Dexterous Human-to-Humanoid Whole-Body Teleoperation and Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.08858/) (2024)
- [HumanPlus: Humanoid Shadowing and Imitation from Humans](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.10454/) (2024)
- [Scaling Robot Learning with Semantically Imagined Experience](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.11550/) (2023)
- [BeyondMimic: From Motion Tracking to Versatile Humanoid Control via Guided Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08241/) (2025)
- [ASAP: Aligning Simulation and Real-World Physics for Learning Agile Humanoid Whole-Body Skills](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.01143/) (2025)
- [Skeleton-Aware Networks for Deep Motion Retargeting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.05732/) (2020)
- [DexMimicGen: Automated Data Generation for Bimanual Dexterous Manipulation via Imitation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.24185/) (2024)
- [GenAug: Retargeting behaviors to unseen situations via Generative Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.06671/) (2023)
- [TWIST: Teleoperated Whole-Body Imitation System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02833/) (2025)
- [Reinforcement Learning for Versatile, Dynamic, and Robust Bipedal Locomotion Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.16889/) (2024)
- [Neural Kinematic Networks for Unsupervised Motion Retargetting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.05653/) (2018)
- [HOMIE: Humanoid Loco-Manipulation with Isomorphic Exoskeleton Cockpit](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13013/) (2025)
- [InterMimic: Towards Universal Whole-Body Control for Physics-Based Human-Object Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.20390/) (2025)
- [CACTI: A Framework for Scalable Multi-Task Multi-Scene Visual Imitation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.05711/) (2022)
- [Visual Imitation Enables Contextual Humanoid Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.03729/) (2025)
- [Human-Object Interaction from Human-Level Instructions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.17840/) (2024)
- [WoCoCo: Learning Whole-Body Humanoid Control with Sequential Contacts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.06005/) (2024)
- [Deep Imitation Learning for Humanoid Loco-manipulation through Human Teleoperation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.01952/) (2023)
- [SkillMimicGen: Automated Demonstration Generation for Efficient Skill Learning and Deployment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18907/) (2024)
- [Learning Humanoid Locomotion with Perceptive Internal Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.14386/) (2024)
- [RoVi-Aug: Robot and Viewpoint Augmentation for Cross-Embodiment Robot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.03403/) (2024)
- [FALCON: Learning Force-Adaptive Humanoid Loco-Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.06776/) (2025)
- [Attention-Based Map Encoding for Learning Generalized Legged Locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09588/) (2025)
- [Sim-to-Real Learning for Humanoid Box Loco-Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03191/) (2023)
- [Diffusion Meets DAgger: Supercharging Eye-in-hand Imitation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.17768/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 71)

- [SPIDER: Scalable Physics-Informed Dexterous Retargeting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.09484/) (2025)
- [Perceptive Humanoid Parkour: Chaining Dynamic Human Skills via Motion Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.15827/) (2026)
- [HumanX: Toward Agile and Generalizable Humanoid Interaction Skills from Human Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.02473/) (2026)
- [TextOp: Real-time Interactive Text-Driven Humanoid Robot Motion Generation and Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.07439/) (2026)
- [Humanoid Manipulation Interface: Humanoid Whole-Body Manipulation from Robot-Free Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.06643/) (2026)
- [ZEST: Zero-shot Embodied Skill Transfer for Athletic Robot Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00401/) (2026)
- [OXE-AugE: A Large-Scale Robot Augmentation of OXE for Scaling Cross-Embodiment Policy Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.13100/) (2025)
- [Humanoid Goalkeeper: Learning from Position Conditioned Task-Motion Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.18002/) (2025)
- [ULTRA: Unified Multimodal Control for Autonomous Humanoid Whole-Body Loco-Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.03279/) (2026)
- [Learning Whole-Body Human-Humanoid Interaction from Human-Human Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.09518/) (2026)
- [MeshMimic: Geometry-Aware Humanoid Motion Learning through 3D Scene Reconstruction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.15733/) (2026)
- [MotionBricks: Scalable Real-Time Motions with Modular Latent Generative Model and Smart Primitives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.24833/) (2026)
- [TopoRetarget: Interaction-Preserving Retargeting for Dexterous Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.16272/) (2026)
- [UniAct: Unified Motion Generation and Action Streaming for Humanoid Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.24321/) (2025)
- [SteadyTray: Learning Object Balancing Tasks in Humanoid Tray Transport via Residual Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.10306/) (2026)
- [Heracles: Bridging Precise Tracking and Generative Synthesis for General Humanoid Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.27756/) (2026)
- [Humanoid-GPT: Scaling Data and Structure for Zero-Shot Motion Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.03985/) (2026)
- [Coordinated Humanoid Manipulation with Choice Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.25072/) (2025)
- [CLOT: Closed-Loop Global Motion Tracking for Whole-Body Humanoid Teleoperation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.15060/) (2026)
- [Towards Motion Turing Test: Evaluating Human-Likeness in Humanoid Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.06181/) (2026)
- [HumanoidMimicGen: Data Generation for Loco-Manipulation via Whole-Body Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.27724/) (2026)
- [SceneBot: Contact-Prompted General Humanoid Whole Body Tracking with Scene-Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.27581/) (2026)
- [A Minimalist Retargeting-Guided Reinforcement Learning Recipe for Dexterous Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.11874/) (2026)
- [Learning Human-Like Badminton Skills for Humanoid Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.08370/) (2026)
- [SUGAR: A Scalable Human-Video-Driven Generalizable Humanoid Loco-Manipulation Learning Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.20373/) (2026)
- [SplitAdapter: Load-Aware Humanoid Loco-Manipulation via Factorized Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.03297/) (2026)
- [PhysDrift: Bridging the Embodiment Gap in Humanoid Co-Speech Motion Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.19935/) (2026)
- [VLK: Learning Humanoid Loco-Manipulation from Synthetic Interactions in Reconstructed Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.30645/) (2026)
- [PAC-MAN: Perception-Aware CBF-RL for Whole-Body Safety in Humanoid Dodgeball](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.28623/) (2026)
- [RoboGesture: Real-Time Semantic-aligned Co-Speech Gestures Generation for Humanoid Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.28693/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

A dominant paradigm for teaching humanoid robots complex skills is to retarget human motions as kinematic references to train reinforcement learning (RL) policies. However, existing retargeting pipelines often struggle with the significant embodiment gap between humans and robots, producing physically implausible artifacts like foot-skating and penetration. More importantly, common retargeting methods neglect the rich human-object and human-environment interactions essential for expressive locomotion and loco-manipulation. To address this, we introduce OmniRetarget, an interaction-preserving data generation engine based on an interaction mesh that explicitly models and preserves the crucial spatial and contact relationships between an agent, the terrain, and manipulated objects. By minimizing the Laplacian deformation between the human and robot meshes while enforcing kinematic constraints, OmniRetarget generates kinematically feasible trajectories. Moreover, preserving task-relevant interactions enables efficient data augmentation, from a single demonstration to different robot embodiments, terrains, and object configurations. We comprehensively evaluate OmniRetarget by retargeting motions from OMOMO, LAFAN1, and our in-house MoCap datasets, generating over 8-hour trajectories that achieve better kinematic constraint satisfaction and contact preservation than widely used baselines. Such high-quality data enables proprioceptive RL policies to successfully execute long-horizon (up to 30 seconds) parkour and loco-manipulation skills on a Unitree G1 humanoid, trained with only 5 reward terms and simple domain randomization shared by all tasks, without any learning curriculum.