SPIDER: Scalable Physics-Informed Dexterous Retargeting
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Abstract (arXiv)
Learning agile robotic policies requires large-scale demonstrations, but translating abundant human motion data to robots is bottlenecked by the embodiment gap and missing dynamic information. To bridge this gap, we propose Scalable Physics-Informed DExterous Retargeting (SPIDER), a physics-based retargeting framework to transform and augment kinematic-only human demonstrations into dynamically feasible robot trajectories at scale. Our key insight is that human demonstrations should provide global task structure and objective, while a sampling-based solver can be used to find the feasible solution given the physics constraints. As a general framework, SPIDER is an efficient physics-based retargeting method that can be applied to both humanoid whole-body loco-manipulation and dexterous manipulation across 9 humanoid/dexterous hand embodiments, 6 datasets and 3 simulators. By bypassing the need for policy optimization, it achieves state-of-the-art performance while being 10x faster than reinforcement learning (RL) baselines. Furthermore, SPIDER enables physics-based data augmentation, such as imposing external payloads, perturbations, and new contact patterns, to generate diverse data. We demonstrate that the retargeted motion can be executed on the robot directly open-loop or serve as feasible reference motion for efficient RL policy learning. Our pipeline enables large-scale generation of robot trajectories from human motion, and we release a dataset of 6,520 simulated demonstrations across four hands and 191 dataset-specific object identities to support future research.
Key facts. Cited by 25 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 62 of its 72 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 12 Nov 2025.
Builds on
62 of 72 references.
References · 62
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38 more
- 2023MimicGen: A Data Generation System for Scalable Robot Learning using Human Demonstrationscited by 308
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- 2023MimicPlay: Long-Horizon Imitation Learning by Watching Human Playcited by 214
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- 2024HOT3D: Hand and Object Tracking in 3D from Egocentric Multi-View Videoscited by 122
- 2024Track2Act: Predicting Point Tracks from Internet Videos enables Generalizable Robot Manipulationcited by 116
- 2024DexMimicGen: Automated Data Generation for Bimanual Dexterous Manipulation via Imitation Learningcited by 104
- 2025ASAP: Aligning Simulation and Real-World Physics for Learning Agile Humanoid Whole-Body Skillscited by 104
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50 most cited of 62 All 62 (JSON)
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Citing papers per year: 2025: 1; 2026: 24.
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- 2026SimToolReal: An Object-Centric Policy for Zero-Shot Dexterous Tool Manipulationcited by 10
- 2026ULTRA: Unified Multimodal Control for Autonomous Humanoid Whole-Body Loco-Manipulationcited by 9
- 2026Dexterous Manipulation Policies from RGB Human Videos via 3D Hand-Object Trajectory Reconstructioncited by 8
- 2025OSMO: Open-Source Tactile Glove for Human-to-Robot Skill Transfercited by 6
- 2026Learning Dexterous Manipulation Using Contact Wrench Guidance From Human Demonstrationcited by 6
- 2026MeshMimic: Geometry-Aware Humanoid Motion Learning through 3D Scene Reconstructioncited by 5
- 2026DexHiL: A Human-in-the-Loop Framework for Vision-Language-Action Model Post-Training in Dexterous Manipulationcited by 5
- 2026Open-AoE: An Open Egocentric Manipulation Dataset and Toolchain for Embodied Learningcited by 5
- 2026FEEL (Force-Enhanced Egocentric Learning): A Dataset for Physical Action Understandingcited by 4
- 2026LUCID: Learning Embodiment-Agnostic Intent Models from Unstructured Human Videos for Scalable Dexterous Robot Skill Acquisitioncited by 2
- 2026PDF-HR: Pose Distance Fields for Humanoid Robotscited by 1
- 2026AnyHand: A Large-Scale Synthetic Dataset for RGB(-D) Hand Pose Estimationcited by 1
13 more
- 2026Ruka-v2: Tendon Driven Open-Source Dexterous Hand with Wrist and Abduction for Robot Learningcited by 1
- 2026Direct Dynamic Retargeting for Humanoid Imitation Learning from Videoscited by 1
- 2026KITE: Decoupling Kinematics and Interaction for Zero-Shot Cross-Embodiment Manipulationcited by 1
- 2026HandFlow: Fully Generative 4D Hand Recovery with Flow Matchingcited by 1
- 2026A Minimalist Retargeting-Guided Reinforcement Learning Recipe for Dexterous Manipulationcited by 1
- 2026MachEmbodied-U0: Unified Understanding and Generation Model for Embodied Intelligencecited by 1
- 2026SynAgent: Generalizable Cooperative Humanoid Manipulation via Solo-to-Cooperative Agent Synergycited by 0
- 2026WristMimic: Full-Body Humanoid Control with Wrist-Guided Manipulationcited by 0
- 2026Track, Articulate, Act: Generating Articulation from Casual Human Videoscited by 0
- 2026SocialHumanoid: Towards Expressive Humanoid Behavior via One-Step Co-Speech Motion Generationcited by 0
- 2026DexAgent: An Agentic Human2Sim2Robot Framework for Dexterous Manipulation with Self-Evolving Tool Librarycited by 0
- 2026EgoHumanoid-V2: Human-to-Humanoid Transfer of Coordinated Whole-Body Skills for Loco-Manipulationcited by 0
- 2026Dex-One2Many: Learning Dexterous Manipulation from a Single Human Demonstrationcited by 0
- 2026Dex-One2Many: Learning Dexterous Manipulation from a Single Human Demonstration8 Oct 2026
- 2026EgoHumanoid-V2: Human-to-Humanoid Transfer of Coordinated Whole-Body Skills for Loco-Manipulation29 Sep 2026
- 2026DexAgent: An Agentic Human2Sim2Robot Framework for Dexterous Manipulation with Self-Evolving Tool Library28 Sep 2026
- 2026SocialHumanoid: Towards Expressive Humanoid Behavior via One-Step Co-Speech Motion Generation27 Sep 2026
- 2026MachEmbodied-U0: Unified Understanding and Generation Model for Embodied Intelligence22 Sep 2026
- 2026Track, Articulate, Act: Generating Articulation from Casual Human Videos16 Sep 2026
- 2026Open-AoE: An Open Egocentric Manipulation Dataset and Toolchain for Embodied Learning15 Jul 2026
- 2026A Minimalist Retargeting-Guided Reinforcement Learning Recipe for Dexterous Manipulation13 Jul 2026
- 2026HandFlow: Fully Generative 4D Hand Recovery with Flow Matching13 Jul 2026
- 2026WristMimic: Full-Body Humanoid Control with Wrist-Guided Manipulation7 Jul 2026
- 2026Learning Dexterous Manipulation Using Contact Wrench Guidance From Human Demonstration22 Jun 2026
- 2026KITE: Decoupling Kinematics and Interaction for Zero-Shot Cross-Embodiment Manipulation20 Jun 2026
13 more
- 2026LUCID: Learning Embodiment-Agnostic Intent Models from Unstructured Human Videos for Scalable Dexterous Robot Skill Acquisition10 Jun 2026
- 2026Direct Dynamic Retargeting for Humanoid Imitation Learning from Videos22 May 2026
- 2026SynAgent: Generalizable Cooperative Humanoid Manipulation via Solo-to-Cooperative Agent Synergy20 Apr 2026
- 2026Ruka-v2: Tendon Driven Open-Source Dexterous Hand with Wrist and Abduction for Robot Learning27 Mar 2026
- 2026AnyHand: A Large-Scale Synthetic Dataset for RGB(-D) Hand Pose Estimation26 Mar 2026
- 2026FEEL (Force-Enhanced Egocentric Learning): A Dataset for Physical Action Understanding16 Mar 2026
- 2026DexHiL: A Human-in-the-Loop Framework for Vision-Language-Action Model Post-Training in Dexterous Manipulation10 Mar 2026
- 2026ULTRA: Unified Multimodal Control for Autonomous Humanoid Whole-Body Loco-Manipulation3 Mar 2026
- 2026SimToolReal: An Object-Centric Policy for Zero-Shot Dexterous Tool Manipulation18 Feb 2026
- 2026MeshMimic: Geometry-Aware Humanoid Motion Learning through 3D Scene Reconstruction17 Feb 2026
- 2026Dexterous Manipulation Policies from RGB Human Videos via 3D Hand-Object Trajectory Reconstruction9 Feb 2026
- 2026PDF-HR: Pose Distance Fields for Humanoid Robots4 Feb 2026
- 2025OSMO: Open-Source Tactile Glove for Human-to-Robot Skill Transfer9 Dec 2025
- 2026SimToolReal: An Object-Centric Policy for Zero-Shot Dexterous Tool Manipulationcited by 10
- 2026ULTRA: Unified Multimodal Control for Autonomous Humanoid Whole-Body Loco-Manipulationcited by 9
- 2026Dexterous Manipulation Policies from RGB Human Videos via 3D Hand-Object Trajectory Reconstructioncited by 8
- 2025OSMO: Open-Source Tactile Glove for Human-to-Robot Skill Transfercited by 6
- 2026Learning Dexterous Manipulation Using Contact Wrench Guidance From Human Demonstrationcited by 6
- 2026MeshMimic: Geometry-Aware Humanoid Motion Learning through 3D Scene Reconstructioncited by 5
- 2026FEEL (Force-Enhanced Egocentric Learning): A Dataset for Physical Action Understandingcited by 4
- 2026LUCID: Learning Embodiment-Agnostic Intent Models from Unstructured Human Videos for Scalable Dexterous Robot Skill Acquisitioncited by 2
- 2026PDF-HR: Pose Distance Fields for Humanoid Robotscited by 1
- 2026AnyHand: A Large-Scale Synthetic Dataset for RGB(-D) Hand Pose Estimationcited by 1
- 2026Ruka-v2: Tendon Driven Open-Source Dexterous Hand with Wrist and Abduction for Robot Learningcited by 1
- 2026KITE: Decoupling Kinematics and Interaction for Zero-Shot Cross-Embodiment Manipulationcited by 1
12 most cited of 20 All 20 (JSON)
- 2026Dex-One2Many: Learning Dexterous Manipulation from a Single Human Demonstration8 Oct 2026
- 2026EgoHumanoid-V2: Human-to-Humanoid Transfer of Coordinated Whole-Body Skills for Loco-Manipulation29 Sep 2026
- 2026SocialHumanoid: Towards Expressive Humanoid Behavior via One-Step Co-Speech Motion Generation27 Sep 2026
- 2026MachEmbodied-U0: Unified Understanding and Generation Model for Embodied Intelligence22 Sep 2026
- 2026Track, Articulate, Act: Generating Articulation from Casual Human Videos16 Sep 2026
- 2026A Minimalist Retargeting-Guided Reinforcement Learning Recipe for Dexterous Manipulation13 Jul 2026
- 2026WristMimic: Full-Body Humanoid Control with Wrist-Guided Manipulation7 Jul 2026
- 2026Learning Dexterous Manipulation Using Contact Wrench Guidance From Human Demonstration22 Jun 2026
- 2026KITE: Decoupling Kinematics and Interaction for Zero-Shot Cross-Embodiment Manipulation20 Jun 2026
- 2026LUCID: Learning Embodiment-Agnostic Intent Models from Unstructured Human Videos for Scalable Dexterous Robot Skill Acquisition10 Jun 2026
- 2026SynAgent: Generalizable Cooperative Humanoid Manipulation via Solo-to-Cooperative Agent Synergy20 Apr 2026
- 2026Ruka-v2: Tendon Driven Open-Source Dexterous Hand with Wrist and Abduction for Robot Learning27 Mar 2026
12 newest of 20 All 20 (JSON)