RobotArena ∞: Scalable Robot Benchmarking via Real-to-Sim Translation
On the map: Vision-language-action models → Failure recovery and robustness
Abstract (arXiv)
The pursuit of robot generalists, agents capable of performing diverse tasks across diverse environments, demands rigorous and scalable evaluation. Yet real-world testing of robot policies remains fundamentally constrained: it is labor-intensive, slow, unsafe at scale, and difficult to reproduce. As policies expand in scope and complexity, these barriers only intensify, since defining "success" in robotics often hinges on nuanced human judgments of execution quality. We introduce RobotArena Infinity, a new benchmarking framework that overcomes these challenges by shifting vision-language-action (VLA) evaluation into large-scale simulated environments augmented with online human feedback. Leveraging advances in vision-language models, 2D-to-3D generative modeling, and differentiable rendering, our approach automatically converts video demonstrations from widely used robot datasets into simulated counterparts. Within these digital twins, we assess VLA policies using both automated vision-language-model-guided scoring and scalable human preference judgments collected from crowdworkers, transforming human involvement from tedious scene setup, resetting, and safety supervision into lightweight preference comparisons. To measure robustness, we systematically perturb simulated environments along multiple axes, including textures and object placements, stress-testing policy generalization under controlled variation. The result is a continuously evolving, reproducible, and scalable benchmark for real-world-trained robot manipulation policies, addressing a critical missing capability in today's robotics landscape.
Key facts. Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Failure recovery and robustness, one of 13 directions in Vision-language-action models. Builds on 56 of its 70 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 27 Oct 2025.
Builds on
56 of 70 references.
References · 56
- 2022LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text modelscited by 4,131
- 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Controlcited by 2,993
- 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 2,777
- 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusioncited by 2,730
- 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Controlcited by 2,297
- 2024Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policycited by 1,427
- 2023LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learningcited by 1,338
- 2019Meta-World: A Benchmark and Evaluation for Multi-Task and Meta Reinforcement Learningcited by 1,168
- 2023PaLM 2 Technical Reportcited by 1,154
- 2023Kosmos-2: Grounding Multimodal Large Language Models to the Worldcited by 1,075
- 2023Open X-Embodiment: Robotic Learning Datasets and RT-X Modelscited by 849
- 2024DROID: A Large-Scale In-The-Wild Robot Manipulation Datasetcited by 801
38 more
- 2021Resolution-robust Large Mask Inpainting with Fourier Convolutionscited by 730
- 2024RDT-1B: a Diffusion Foundation Model for Bimanual Manipulationcited by 670
- 2019RLBench: The Robot Learning Benchmark & Learning Environmentcited by 669
- 2025FAST: Efficient Action Tokenization for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 643
- 2023BridgeData V2: A Dataset for Robot Learning at Scalecited by 634
- 2021CALVIN: A Benchmark for Language-Conditioned Policy Learning for Long-Horizon Robot Manipulation Taskscited by 564
- 2025SpatialVLA: Exploring Spatial Representations for Visual-Language-Action Modelcited by 502
- 2024Evaluating Real-World Robot Manipulation Policies in Simulationcited by 484
- 2024CogACT: A Foundational Vision-Language-Action Model for Synergizing Cognition and Action in Robotic Manipulationcited by 411
- 2024Latent Action Pretraining from Videoscited by 302
- 2024MoGe: Unlocking Accurate Monocular Geometry Estimation for Open-Domain Images with Optimal Training Supervisioncited by 290
- 2025X-VLA: Soft-Prompted Transformer as Scalable Cross-Embodiment Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 285
- 2023NoMaD: Goal Masked Diffusion Policies for Navigation and Explorationcited by 234
- 2021MT-Opt: Continuous Multi-Task Robotic Reinforcement Learning at Scalecited by 226
- 2023RH20T: A Comprehensive Robotic Dataset for Learning Diverse Skills in One-Shotcited by 173
- 2023RoboAgent: Generalization and Efficiency in Robot Manipulation via Semantic Augmentations and Action Chunkingcited by 167
- 2024RoboMIND: Benchmark on Multi-embodiment Intelligence Normative Data for Robot Manipulationcited by 166
- 2022GNM: A General Navigation Model to Drive Any Robotcited by 161
- 2024BEHAVIOR-1K: A Human-Centered, Embodied AI Benchmark with 1,000 Everyday Activities and Realistic Simulationcited by 140
- 2024Reconciling Reality through Simulation: A Real-to-Sim-to-Real Approach for Robust Manipulationcited by 135
- 2023FurnitureBench: Reproducible Real-World Benchmark for Long-Horizon Complex Manipulationcited by 132
- 2024THE COLOSSEUM: A Benchmark for Evaluating Generalization for Robotic Manipulationcited by 128
- 2024Scaling Cross-Embodied Learning: One Policy for Manipulation, Navigation, Locomotion and Aviationcited by 108
- 2023HomeRobot: Open-Vocabulary Mobile Manipulationcited by 104
- 2024Arbitrary-steps Image Super-resolution via Diffusion Inversioncited by 85
- 2019IKEA Furniture Assembly Environment for Long-Horizon Complex Manipulation Taskscited by 68
- 2024In-Context Imitation Learning via Next-Token Predictioncited by 65
- 2024DreamScene4D: Dynamic Multi-Object Scene Generation from Monocular Videoscited by 63
- 2024Pushing the Limits of Cross-Embodiment Learning for Manipulation and Navigationcited by 60
- 2023SPOC: Imitating Shortest Paths in Simulation Enables Effective Navigation and Manipulation in the Real Worldcited by 47
- 2025AutoEval: Autonomous Evaluation of Generalist Robot Manipulation Policies in the Real Worldcited by 46
- 2024MINIMA: Modality Invariant Image Matchingcited by 44
- 2016Analysis and Observations from the First Amazon Picking Challengecited by 41
- 2025Re3Sim: Generating High-Fidelity Simulation Data via 3D-Photorealistic Real-to-Sim for Robotic Manipulationcited by 38
- 2024Autonomous Improvement of Instruction Following Skills via Foundation Modelscited by 32
- 2025Shortcut Learning in Generalist Robot Policies: The Role of Dataset Diversity and Fragmentationcited by 31
- 2025Scalable Real2Sim: Physics-Aware Asset Generation Via Robotic Pick-and-Place Setupscited by 29
- 2022Phone2Proc: Bringing Robust Robots Into Our Chaotic Worldcited by 24
50 most cited of 56 All 56 (JSON)
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 3; 2026: 12.
15 papers.
Sort:
By area:
- 2025PolaRiS: Scalable Real-to-Sim Evaluations for Generalist Robot Policiescited by 29
- 2025Real-to-Sim Robot Policy Evaluation with Gaussian Splatting Simulation of Soft-Body Interactionscited by 27
- 2026RoboLab: A High-Fidelity Simulation Benchmark for Analysis of Task Generalist Policiescited by 19
- 2025REALM: A Real-to-Sim Validated Benchmark for Generalization in Robotic Manipulationcited by 12
- 2026Reconstruction by Generation: 3D Multi-Object Scene Reconstruction from Sparse Observationscited by 5
- 2026RoboWorld: Fast and Reliable Neural Simulators for Generalist Robot Policy Evaluationcited by 4
- 2026Data Pyramid for Embodied Manipulation: A Surveycited by 4
- 2026Contact-Anchored Policies: Contact Conditioning Creates Strong Robot Utility Modelscited by 3
- 2026Active Real-World Factor-Based Evaluation for Generalist Robot Policiescited by 1
- 2026R2S-EGO: Dual-Proxy Refinement for Sparse-Capture Real-to-Simcited by 1
- 2026BendTwin: Robust Dense-to-Sparse Physical Reconstruction with Bending-Aware Differentiable Spring-Mass Modelscited by 0
- 2026R2S-Eval: Robot Evaluation with Real-to-Sim Calibration via Vision-Language Modelscited by 0
- 2026ReVeal: A Reconstruction-Aware Real-to-Sim Framework for VLA Policy Evaluation20 Sep 2026
- 2026From Rollout to Reset: A Graph-Based Harness for Autonomous Long-Horizon Manipulation Evaluation16 Sep 2026
- 2026No Free Checker: A Survey of Verifiers for Robot Policies8 Sep 2026
- 2026R2S-Eval: Robot Evaluation with Real-to-Sim Calibration via Vision-Language Models3 Sep 2026
- 2026R2S-EGO: Dual-Proxy Refinement for Sparse-Capture Real-to-Sim7 Aug 2026
- 2026BendTwin: Robust Dense-to-Sparse Physical Reconstruction with Bending-Aware Differentiable Spring-Mass Models6 Aug 2026
- 2026Data Pyramid for Embodied Manipulation: A Survey27 Jul 2026
- 2026Active Real-World Factor-Based Evaluation for Generalist Robot Policies16 Jul 2026
- 2026RoboWorld: Fast and Reliable Neural Simulators for Generalist Robot Policy Evaluation1 Jul 2026
- 2026Reconstruction by Generation: 3D Multi-Object Scene Reconstruction from Sparse Observations29 Apr 2026
- 2026RoboLab: A High-Fidelity Simulation Benchmark for Analysis of Task Generalist Policies10 Apr 2026
- 2026Contact-Anchored Policies: Contact Conditioning Creates Strong Robot Utility Models9 Feb 2026
3 more
- 2025PolaRiS: Scalable Real-to-Sim Evaluations for Generalist Robot Policiescited by 29
- 2025Real-to-Sim Robot Policy Evaluation with Gaussian Splatting Simulation of Soft-Body Interactionscited by 27
- 2026RoboLab: A High-Fidelity Simulation Benchmark for Analysis of Task Generalist Policiescited by 19
- 2026Reconstruction by Generation: 3D Multi-Object Scene Reconstruction from Sparse Observationscited by 5
- 2026Data Pyramid for Embodied Manipulation: A Surveycited by 4
- 2026Contact-Anchored Policies: Contact Conditioning Creates Strong Robot Utility Modelscited by 3
- 2026Active Real-World Factor-Based Evaluation for Generalist Robot Policiescited by 1
- 2026R2S-EGO: Dual-Proxy Refinement for Sparse-Capture Real-to-Simcited by 1
- 2026BendTwin: Robust Dense-to-Sparse Physical Reconstruction with Bending-Aware Differentiable Spring-Mass Modelscited by 0
- 2026No Free Checker: A Survey of Verifiers for Robot Policiescited by 0
- 2026From Rollout to Reset: A Graph-Based Harness for Autonomous Long-Horizon Manipulation Evaluationcited by 0
- 2026From Rollout to Reset: A Graph-Based Harness for Autonomous Long-Horizon Manipulation Evaluation16 Sep 2026
- 2026No Free Checker: A Survey of Verifiers for Robot Policies8 Sep 2026
- 2026R2S-EGO: Dual-Proxy Refinement for Sparse-Capture Real-to-Sim7 Aug 2026
- 2026BendTwin: Robust Dense-to-Sparse Physical Reconstruction with Bending-Aware Differentiable Spring-Mass Models6 Aug 2026
- 2026Data Pyramid for Embodied Manipulation: A Survey27 Jul 2026
- 2026Active Real-World Factor-Based Evaluation for Generalist Robot Policies16 Jul 2026
- 2026Reconstruction by Generation: 3D Multi-Object Scene Reconstruction from Sparse Observations29 Apr 2026
- 2026RoboLab: A High-Fidelity Simulation Benchmark for Analysis of Task Generalist Policies10 Apr 2026
- 2026Contact-Anchored Policies: Contact Conditioning Creates Strong Robot Utility Models9 Feb 2026
- 2025PolaRiS: Scalable Real-to-Sim Evaluations for Generalist Robot Policies18 Dec 2025
- 2025Real-to-Sim Robot Policy Evaluation with Gaussian Splatting Simulation of Soft-Body Interactions6 Nov 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026PhAIL: A Real-Robot VLA Benchmark and Distributional Methodology
- 2026Benchmarking Vision-Language-Action Models on SO-101: Failure and Recovery Analysis
- 2026Faster and Better? Benchmark Bugs and Design Limitations Distort the Evaluation of Vision-Language-Action Acceleration
- 2026Colosseum V2: Benchmarking Generalization for Vision-Language-Action Models
- 2026Rethinking Visual-Language-Action Model Scaling: Alignment, Mixture, and Regularization
- 2026IndustrialVLA-Bench: A Traceable Multi-Axis Evaluation of Open Robot Policy Models
- 2026VLA-REPLICA: A Low-Cost, Reproducible Benchmark for Real-World Evaluation of Vision-Language-Action Models
- 2025VLA-Arena: An Open-Source Framework for Benchmarking Vision-Language-Action Models