[Submitted on 6 Oct 2026]
Title:HULK: Learning Whole-Body Forceful Loco-Manipulation for Humanoids
View a PDF of the paper titled HULK: Learning Whole-Body Forceful Loco-Manipulation for Humanoids, by An Dang and 7 other authors
View PDF HTML (experimental)
Abstract:Humanoid loco-manipulation of large, heavy objects demands forceful interaction across the entire body. However, such payloads shift a humanoid's center of mass and impose sustained loads across the upper body, challenging balance and command tracking. We present HULK, a whole-body control framework for forceful loco-manipulation. Using model predictive control (MPC) to guide reinforcement learning with predictions of the loaded dynamics, we train two teachers: one tracks arm motions under wrist forces, and the other locomotes while holding large objects against the body. A capture-point control barrier function augments the wrist-force teacher during training to improve balance under load. We distill both teachers into a single policy. Evaluation spans simulation and the Unitree G1. In simulation, the teacher with the barrier function achieves the lowest forward and lateral velocity tracking errors at 10 kg per arm among evaluated controllers and reduces aggregate divergent component of motion (DCM) excursion magnitude by 35.7% relative to MPC-guided reinforcement learning alone. Our wrist-force teacher withstands torso push disturbances of up to 130 N.
Comments: 16 pages, 7 figures, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation 2027
Subjects:
Robotics (cs.RO); Machine Learning (cs.LG)
Cite as: arXiv:2610.08970 [cs.RO]
(or arXiv:2610.08970v1 [cs.RO] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.08970
arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
Submission history
From: An Dang [view email] [v1] Tue, 6 Oct 2026 18:33:11 UTC (10,791 KB)
Full-text links:
Access Paper:
View a PDF of the paper titled HULK: Learning Whole-Body Forceful Loco-Manipulation for Humanoids, by An Dang and 7 other authors
View PDF
HTML (experimental)
TeX Source
view license
Additional Features
Audio Summary
Current browse context:
cs.RO
new | recent | 2026-10
Change to browse by:
cs cs.LG
References & Citations
NASA ADS
Google Scholar
Semantic Scholar
Loading...
Data provided by:
Bibliographic Tools
Bibliographic and Citation Tools
Bibliographic Explorer Toggle
Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?)
Connected Papers Toggle
Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?)
Litmaps Toggle
Litmaps (What is Litmaps?)
scite.ai Toggle
scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?)
Code, Data, Media
Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article
alphaXiv Toggle
alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?)
Links to Code Toggle
CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?)
DagsHub Toggle
DagsHub (What is DagsHub?)
GotitPub Toggle
Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?)
Huggingface Toggle
Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?)
ScienceCast Toggle
ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?)
Demos
Demos
Replicate Toggle
Replicate (What is Replicate?)
Spaces Toggle
Hugging Face Spaces (What is Spaces?)
Spaces Toggle
TXYZ.AI (What is TXYZ.AI?)
Related Papers
Recommenders and Search Tools
Link to Influence Flower
Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?)
Core recommender toggle
CORE Recommender (What is CORE?)
Author
Venue
Institution
Topic
About arXivLabs
arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators
arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website.
Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them.
Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.
Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)