# RoboWM-Bench: A Benchmark for Evaluating World Models in Robotic Manipulation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.19092 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.19092/

## Key facts

- Cited by 19 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 57 of its 63 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 21 Apr 2026.

## Placed in

- World models / [Embodied and robot world models](https://mlsanity.com/wm/embodied-and-robot-world-models/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 57)

- [Qwen3-VL Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.21631/) (2025)
- [Wan: Open and Advanced Large-Scale Video Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.20314/) (2025)
- [VBench: Comprehensive Benchmark Suite for Video Generative Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17982/) (2023)
- [Ego4D: Around the World in 3,000 Hours of Egocentric Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.07058/) (2021)
- [Depth Anything: Unleashing the Power of Large-Scale Unlabeled Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.10891/) (2024)
- [GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14734/) (2025)
- [CogVideo: Large-scale Pretraining for Text-to-Video Generation via Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.15868/) (2022)
- [WorldSimBench: Towards Video Generation Models as World Simulators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.18072/) (2024)
- [Cosmos World Foundation Model Platform for Physical AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03575/) (2025)
- [V-JEPA 2: Self-Supervised Video Models Enable Understanding, Prediction and Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09985/) (2025)
- [R3M: A Universal Visual Representation for Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12601/) (2022)
- [LTX-Video: Realtime Video Latent Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.00103/) (2024)
- [Learning Universal Policies via Text-Guided Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.00111/) (2023)
- [Learning Interactive Real-World Simulators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06114/) (2023)
- [FoundationPose: Unified 6D Pose Estimation and Tracking of Novel Objects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.08344/) (2023)
- [VIP: Towards Universal Visual Reward and Representation via Value-Implicit Pre-Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.00030/) (2022)
- [LAVIE: High-Quality Video Generation with Cascaded Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15103/) (2023)
- [Video PreTraining (VPT): Learning to Act by Watching Unlabeled Online Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.11795/) (2022)
- [EvalCrafter: Benchmarking and Evaluating Large Video Generation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.11440/) (2023)
- [Latent Action Pretraining from Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.11758/) (2024)
- [VBench-2.0: Advancing Video Generation Benchmark Suite for Intrinsic Faithfulness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21755/) (2025)
- [Reconstructing Hands in 3D with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05251/) (2023)
- [Seedance 1.0: Exploring the Boundaries of Video Generation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09113/) (2025)
- [SAM 3D: 3Dfy Anything in Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.16624/) (2025)
- [Real-World Robot Learning with Masked Visual Pre-training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03109/) (2022)
- [MegaSaM: Accurate, Fast, and Robust Structure and Motion from Casual Dynamic Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04463/) (2024)
- [Video Depth Anything: Consistent Depth Estimation for Super-Long Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.12375/) (2025)
- [DexMV: Imitation Learning for Dexterous Manipulation from Human Videos](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.05877/) (2021)
- [MegaPose: 6D Pose Estimation of Novel Objects via Render & Compare](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06870/) (2022)
- [World Simulation with Video Foundation Models for Physical AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.00062/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [How Should World Models Be Evaluated for Embodied Decision-Making? A Decision-Making-Centric Position](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.15032/) (2026)
- [RoboTrustBench: Benchmarking the Trustworthiness of Video World Models for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.01600/) (2026)
- [Data Pyramid for Embodied Manipulation: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.24744/) (2026)
- [WorldExam: Benchmarking World Models from Apparent Appearance to Inherent Reactivity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.02603/) (2026)
- [WorldSimProbe: Diagnosing Simulator Faithfulness in Action-Conditioned World Models for Embodied Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.09298/) (2026)
- [RoboGaze: Evaluating Robot World Models via Structured Vision-Language Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.28385/) (2026)
- [From World Action Models to Embodied Brains: A Roadmap for Open-World Physical Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.11689/) (2026)
- [TriWorldBench: A Tri-View Consistency Perspective on Embodied World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.26314/) (2026)
- [From Generation to Simulation: How Far Are World Models from Being True Simulators?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.23070/) (2026)
- [PhysAI-Bench: A Benchmark for LLM-Based Agentic Decision-Making in Autonomous UAV-Centric Physical AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.23695/) (2026)
- [HappyWorld-Bench](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.24308/) (2026)
- [Beyond Visual Quality: A Study of Test-Time Planning with World Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.24745/) (2026)
- [Do World Models Make Better Robots? A Survey of Evaluation Benchmarks for Predictive Embodied Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.29669/) (2026)
- [Ego2Act: Evaluating Goal-Directed Manipulation in Egocentric Video Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01092/) (2026)
- [PhysicsLENS: Diagnosing Physical Property Blindness in Video Generation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01162/) (2026)
- [Supervise What Decides Success: Criterion-Aligned Auxiliary Losses for Latent World-Model Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01224/) (2026)
- [EVEWorld: Physical Evolution Supervision for Embodied World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.03374/) (2026)
- [DepthWorld: 3D World Model for Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.08780/) (2026)
- [WorldOracle: Benchmarking Action-Conditioned World Models against Real-World Executions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.18826/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advances in large-scale video world models have enabled increasingly realistic future prediction, raising the prospect of using generated videos as scalable supervision for robot learning. However, for embodied manipulation, perceptual realism alone is not sufficient: generated interactions must also be physically consistent and executable by robotic agents. Existing benchmarks provide valuable assessments of visual quality and physical plausibility, but they do not systematically evaluate whether predicted behaviors can be translated into executable actions that complete manipulation tasks. We introduce RoboWM-Bench, a manipulation-centric benchmark for embodiment-grounded evaluation of video world models. RoboWM-Bench converts generated human-hand and robotic manipulation videos into embodied action sequences and validates them through execution in physically grounded simulation environments. Built on real-to-sim scene reconstruction and diverse manipulation tasks, RoboWM-Bench enables standardized, reproducible, and scalable evaluation of physical executability. Using RoboWM-Bench, we evaluate state-of-the-art video world models and observe that visual plausibility and embodied executability are not always aligned. Our analysis highlights several recurring factors that affect execution performance, including spatial reasoning, contact prediction, and non-physical geometric distortions, particularly in complex and long-horizon interactions. These findings provide a more fine-grained view of current model capabilities and underscore the value of embodiment-aware evaluation for guiding physically grounded world modeling in robotic manipulation.