mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Robot Learning from a Physical World Model

arXiv 2511.07416 ↗First posted 10 Nov 2025cs.RO cs.AI cs.CVcited by 20

On the map: World models → Embodied and robot world models

Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce PhysWorld, a framework that enables robot learning from video generation through physical world modeling. Recent video generation models can synthesize photorealistic visual demonstrations from language commands and images, offering a powerful yet underexplored source of training signals for robotics. However, directly retargeting pixel motions from generated videos to robots neglects physics, often resulting in inaccurate manipulations. PhysWorld addresses this limitation by coupling video generation with physical world reconstruction. Given a single image and a task command, our method generates task-conditioned videos and reconstructs the underlying physical world from the videos, and the generated video motions are grounded into physically accurate actions through object-centric residual reinforcement learning with the physical world model. This synergy transforms implicit visual guidance into physically executable robotic trajectories, eliminating the need for real robot data collection and enabling zero-shot generalizable robotic manipulation. Experiments on diverse real-world tasks demonstrate that PhysWorld substantially improves manipulation accuracy compared to previous approaches. Visit hrefhttps://pointscoder.github.io/PhysWorldWeb/the project webpage for details.

Key facts. Cited by 20 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Embodied and robot world models, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 67 of its 71 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 10 Nov 2025.

Builds on

67 of 71 references.

Closest ancestors · 4

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025TesserAct: Learning 4D Embodied World Models29 Apr
  2. 2024Predictive Inverse Dynamics Models are Scalable Learners for Robotic Manipulation19 Dec
  3. 2023Structured World Models from Human Videos21 Aug
  4. 2022BC-Z: Zero-Shot Task Generalization with Robotic Imitation Learning4 Feb

Other references · 63

  1. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 15,215
  2. 20233D Gaussian Splatting for Real-Time Radiance Field Renderingcited by 6,226
  3. 2024CogVideoX: Text-to-Video Diffusion Models with An Expert Transformercited by 2,261
  4. 2025Cosmos World Foundation Model Platform for Physical AIcited by 864
  5. 2024Structured 3D Latents for Scalable and Versatile 3D Generationcited by 770
  6. 2023Learning Universal Policies via Text-Guided Video Generationcited by 522
  7. 2024Evaluating Real-World Robot Manipulation Policies in Simulationcited by 495
  8. 2023Learning Interactive Real-World Simulatorscited by 458
  9. 2023FoundationPose: Unified 6D Pose Estimation and Tracking of Novel Objectscited by 429
  10. 2023MimicGen: A Data Generation System for Scalable Robot Learning using Human Demonstrationscited by 327
  11. 2024MegaSaM: Accurate, Fast, and Robust Structure and Motion from Casual Dynamic Videoscited by 228
  12. 2023MimicPlay: Long-Horizon Imitation Learning by Watching Human Playcited by 223
38 more
  1. 2023Any-point Trajectory Modeling for Policy Learningcited by 215
  2. 2022AnyGrasp: Robust and Efficient Grasp Perception in Spatial and Temporal Domainscited by 208
  3. 2025Unified Video Action Modelcited by 205
  4. 2023Learning to Act from Actionless Videos through Dense Correspondencescited by 164
  5. 2023Video Language Planningcited by 162
  6. 2022Human-to-Robot Imitation in the Wildcited by 161
  7. 2024Gen2Act: Human Video Generation in Novel Scenarios enables Generalizable Robot Manipulationcited by 153
  8. 2023BundleSDF: Neural 6-DoF Tracking and 3D Reconstruction of Unknown Objectscited by 148
  9. 2024Reconciling Reality through Simulation: A Real-to-Sim-to-Real Approach for Robust Manipulationcited by 144
  10. 2024Flow as the Cross-Domain Manipulation Interfacecited by 132
  11. 2024Track2Act: Predicting Point Tracks from Internet Videos enables Generalizable Robot Manipulationcited by 124
  12. 2019AVID: Learning Multi-Stage Tasks via Pixel-Level Translation of Human Videoscited by 105
  13. 2024Automated Creation of Digital Cousins for Robust Policy Learningcited by 91
  14. 2021Learning by Watching: Physical Imitation of Manipulation Skills from Human Videoscited by 87
  15. 2024Dreamitate: Real-World Visuomotor Policy Learning via Video Generationcited by 87
  16. 2020Learning from Suboptimal Demonstration via Self-Supervised Reward Regressioncited by 84
  17. 2022You Only Demonstrate Once: Category-Level Manipulation from Single Visual Demonstrationcited by 81
  18. 2018Multiple Interactions Made Easy (MIME): Large Scale Demonstrations Data for Imitationcited by 76
  19. 2023XSkill: Cross Embodiment Skill Discoverycited by 75
  20. 2019Third-Person Visual Imitation Learning via Decoupled Hierarchical Controllercited by 73
  21. 2025Phantom: Training Robots Without Robots Using Only Human Videoscited by 70
  22. 2025Visual Imitation Enables Contextual Humanoid Controlcited by 68
  23. 2025Motion Tracks: A Unified Representation for Human-Robot Transfer in Few-Shot Imitation Learningcited by 59
  24. 2024Robot See Robot Do: Imitating Articulated Object Manipulation with Monocular 4D Reconstructioncited by 54
  25. 2024RoboGSim: A Real2Sim2Real Robotic Gaussian Splatting Simulatorcited by 53
  26. 2024Vid2Robot: End-to-end Video-conditioned Policy Learning with Cross-Attention Transformerscited by 52
  27. 2023Zero-Shot Robot Manipulation from Passive Human Videoscited by 51
  28. 2024Vision-based Manipulation from Single Human Video with Open-World Object Graphscited by 50
  29. 2024Physical Property Understanding from Language-Embedded Feature Fieldscited by 48
  30. 2024Robo-GS: A Physics Consistent Spatial-Temporal Model for Robotic Arm with Hybrid Representationcited by 46
  31. 2025Re3Sim: Generating High-Fidelity Simulation Data via 3D-Photorealistic Real-to-Sim for Robotic Manipulationcited by 43
  32. 2024Physically Embodied Gaussian Splatting: A Realtime Correctable World Model for Roboticscited by 40
  33. 2024R+X: Retrieval and Execution from Everyday Human Videoscited by 38
  34. 2024SPOT: SE(3) Pose Trajectory Diffusion for Object-Centric Manipulationcited by 38
  35. 2025Robotic Manipulation by Imitating Generated Videos Without Physical Demonstrationscited by 38
  36. 2025UniSkill: Imitating Human Videos via Cross-Embodiment Skill Representationscited by 35
  37. 2025Crossing the Human-Robot Embodiment Gap with Sim-to-Real RL using One Human Demonstrationcited by 34
  38. 2024DITTO: Demonstration Imitation by Trajectory Transformationcited by 30

50 most cited of 63 All 63 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 19.

20 papers.

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  1. 2026World Action Models: The Next Frontier in Embodied AIcited by 50
  2. 2026World Model for Robot Learning: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 46
  3. 2026MVISTA-4D: View-Consistent 4D World Model with Test-Time Action Inference for Robotic Manipulationcited by 17
  4. 2026SimToolReal: An Object-Centric Policy for Zero-Shot Dexterous Tool Manipulationcited by 15
  5. 2026World Action Models: A Surveycited by 12
  6. 2026Large Reward Models: Generalizable Online Robot Reward Generation with Vision-Language Modelscited by 11
  7. 2025WorldPack: Dynamic Frame Compression for Long-context Video World Modelingcited by 8
  8. 2026RoboAlign-R1: Distilled Multimodal Reward Alignment for Robot Video World Modelscited by 8
  9. 2026FlowHOI: Flow-based Semantics-Grounded Generation of Hand-Object Interactions for Dexterous Robot Manipulationcited by 7
  10. 2026DreamPlan: Efficient Reinforcement Fine-Tuning of Vision-Language Planners via Video World Modelscited by 5
  11. 2026Robot Learning from Human Videos: A Surveycited by 5
  12. 2026Vesta: A Generalist Embodied Reasoning Modelcited by 5
8 more
  1. 2026CRAFT: Video Diffusion for Bimanual Robot Data Generationcited by 4
  2. 2026OpenWorldLib: A Unified Codebase and Definition of Advanced World Modelscited by 3
  3. 2026ChronoAgentic: A Code-based Multi-Agent World Simulator for Physically Grounded Simulation Constructioncited by 2
  4. 20263D Generation for Embodied AI and Robotic Simulation: A Surveycited by 1
  5. 2026World Models for Embodied Intelligence: From Plausible to Controllable to Actionablecited by 1
  6. 2026Toward Unified Robot Learning: Bridging Representation, Vision-Language-Action, and World Modelscited by 0
  7. 2026PhysFlow: Physics-Aware Optical Flow for Motion Controllable Video Generationcited by 0
  8. 2026CASTER: Formalizing Zero-Shot Manipulation from Synthetic Videos as Constrained Optimizationcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Robotic Video World Models: A Survey of Applications, Research Challenges, Future Directions
  2. 2026ABot-PhysWorld: Interactive World Foundation Model for Robotic Manipulation with Physics Alignment
  3. 2026PhysisForcing: Physics Reinforced World Simulator for Robotic Manipulation
  4. 2026PhyWorld: Physics-Faithful World Model for Video Generation
  5. 2025PhysWorld: From Real Videos to World Models of Deformable Objects via Physics-Aware Demonstration Synthesis
  6. 2025PhysMaster: Mastering Physical Representation for Video Generation via Reinforcement Learning
  7. 2026Say, Dream, and Act: Learning Video World Models for Instruction-Driven Robot Manipulation
  8. 2026ReWorld: Multi-Dimensional Reward Modeling for Embodied World Models