# Closing the Reality Gap: Zero-Shot Sim-to-Real Deployment for Dexterous Force-Based Grasping and Manipulation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.02778 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.02778/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 46 of its 61 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 6 Jan 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 46)

- [Segment Anything](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.02643/) (2023)
- [Domain Randomization for Transferring Deep Neural Networks from Simulation to the Real World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06907/) (2017)
- [On the Continuity of Rotation Representations in Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.07035/) (2018)
- [Solving Rubik's Cube with a Robot Hand](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.07113/) (2019)
- [Learning Dexterous In-Hand Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1808.00177/) (2018)
- [Learning Quadrupedal Locomotion over Challenging Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11251/) (2020)
- [Learning agile and dynamic motor skills for legged robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.08652/) (2019)
- [Orbit: A Unified Simulation Framework for Interactive Robot Learning Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.04195/) (2023)
- [BeyondMimic: From Motion Tracking to Versatile Humanoid Control via Guided Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08241/) (2025)
- [Extreme Parkour with Legged Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.14341/) (2023)
- [ANYmal Parkour: Learning Agile Navigation for Quadrupedal Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14874/) (2023)
- [DeXtreme: Transfer of Agile In-hand Manipulation from Simulation to Reality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.13702/) (2022)
- [Robot Parkour Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.05665/) (2023)
- [Learning Agile Soccer Skills for a Bipedal Robot with Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.13653/) (2023)
- [ASAP: Aligning Simulation and Real-World Physics for Learning Agile Humanoid Whole-Body Skills](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.01143/) (2025)
- [Rotating without Seeing: Towards In-hand Dexterity through Touch](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.10880/) (2023)
- [UMI on Legs: Making Manipulation Policies Mobile with Manipulation-Centric Whole-body Controllers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.10353/) (2024)
- [3D-ViTac: Learning Fine-Grained Manipulation with Visuo-Tactile Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.24091/) (2024)
- [Multi-expert learning of adaptive legged locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.05810/) (2020)
- [Visual Whole-Body Control for Legged Loco-Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.16967/) (2024)
- [Robot Synesthesia: In-Hand Manipulation with Visuotactile Sensing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.01853/) (2023)
- [Sim-to-Real Reinforcement Learning for Vision-Based Dexterous Manipulation on Humanoids](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.20396/) (2025)
- [Towards Generalist Robot Learning from Internet Video: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.19664/) (2024)
- [Attention-Based Map Encoding for Learning Generalized Legged Locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09588/) (2025)
- [TacSL: A Library for Visuotactile Sensor Simulation and Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.06506/) (2024)
- [Weakly-Supervised Temporal Action Localization by Inferring Salient Snippet-Feature](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12332/) (2023)
- [Learning Force Control for Legged Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.01402/) (2024)
- [Action Quality Assessment via Hierarchical Pose-guided Multi-stage Contrastive Regression](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03674/) (2025)
- [Learning Purely Tactile In-Hand Manipulation with a Torque-Controlled Hand](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.03698/) (2022)
- [Learning Visual Quadrupedal Loco-Manipulation from Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.20328/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Tac2Real: Reliable and GPU Visuotactile Simulation for Online Reinforcement Learning and Zero-Shot Real-World Deployment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.28475/) (2026)
- [DexTaG: Tactile-as-Guidance in Reinforcement Learning for Dexterous Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.33882/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Human-like dexterous hands with multiple fingers offer human-level manipulation capabilities, but training control policies that can directly deploy on real hardware remains difficult due to contact-rich physics and imperfect actuation. We close this gap with a practical sim-to-real reinforcement learning (RL) framework that utilizes dense tactile feedback combined with joint torque sensing to explicitly regulate physical interactions. To enable effective sim-to-real transfer, we introduce (i) a computationally fast tactile simulation that computes distances between dense virtual tactile units and the object via parallel forward kinematics, providing high-rate, high-resolution touch signals needed by RL; (ii) a current-to-torque calibration that eliminates the need for torque sensors on dexterous hands by mapping motor current to joint torque; and (iii) actuator dynamics modeling to bridge the actuation gaps with randomization of non-ideal effects such as backlash, torque-speed saturation. Using an asymmetric actor-critic PPO pipeline trained entirely in simulation, our policies deploy directly to a five-finger hand. The resulting policies demonstrated two essential skills: (1) command-based, controllable grasp force tracking, and (2) reorientation of objects in the hand, both of which were robustly executed without fine-tuning on the robot. By combining tactile and torque in the observation space with effective sensing/actuation modeling, our system provides a practical solution to achieve reliable dexterous manipulation. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of controllable grasping on a multi-finger dexterous hand trained entirely in simulation and transferred zero-shot on real hardware.