[COMPARE] Ecosystem Digest, October 5 - October 18, 2025

[COMPARE Ecosystem]

COMPARE Ecosystem Digest, October 5 - October 18, 2025

Hello COMPARErs!  IROS 2025 kicks off this week in Hangzhou, China with a whopping 15 workshops related to robot manipulation. You can find more information below and on our Workshops page. Last week, we condensed the channels in the COMPARE Slack dedicated to technical topics, simplifying to #software, #hardware, #datasets, and #benchmarking. We hope this will improve usability and reduce fragmentation of discussion. COMPARE aims to provide a common space for the community to congregate, so if you have an open-source or benchmarking effort related to robot manipulation such as a workshop, competition, or other type of working group, let us know if you want a dedicated channel in the COMPARE Slack! #your-benchmarking-effort 🤖 For those enjoying IROS this week, please submit any open-source software, hardware, datasets, or benchmarking assets you think should be included in the COMPARE repos using the links provided below. Remember to keep the source open and mark that bench!

Here’s what you may have missed last week and what’s coming up soon: New learning environments and manipulation datasets were added to robot-manipulation.org, IROS 2025 is this week, and the ROMANDIC winter school on deformables has been announced!  💬 = recent discussions in the 🤖 = recent additions to

Open-Source Software Components Perception 💬 #software: FoundationPoseROS2: Multi-Object Pose Estimation and Tracking of Novel Objects in ROS2 with RealSense2 [GitHub] 🤖 We’re building new repositories of open-source software components for segmentation, object detection, and pose estimation. Have suggestions on what should be included? Submit them here! https://forms.gle/LHrtmDpm82X4qrDk6 Learning 🤖 Learning Environments: New entries (30 total):  BEHAVIOR-1K [long-horizon manipulation, mobile manipulator embodiment, Sapien simulator] Drake-Gym [reinforcement learning, various embodiments, Drake simulator] MuBlE [language-guided manipulation, single arm embodiment, MuJoCo simulator] MuJoCo Playground [reinforcement learning, various embodiments, MuJoCo simulator] RoboMimic [imitation learning, single arm embodiment, RoboSuite simulator] RoboVerse [various embodiments, multiple simulators: CoppeliaSim, PyBullet, MuJoCo, Isaac Sim, Sapien] Unity ML-Agents Toolkit [reinforcement learning, various embodiments, Unity simulator] See the repository for more details!

Datasets 🤖 Manipulation Datasets: New entries (11 total):  AgiBot World [real data; RGB images, depth images, robot pose, robot velocity, robot force, robot torque, RGB images, video; single arm, bi-manual, mobile manipulator, two-finger, and multi-finger embodiments: AgiBot G1] BridgeData V2 [real data; RGB images, RGB-D images; single arm, two-finger embodiment: WidowX 250] Kaiwu [real data; video, 3D skeleton, audio, haptic, eye gaze, IMU, EMG; human hands] LIBERO [sim data; RGB images; single arm, two-finger embodiment: Franka Emika Panda] PartInstruct [sim data; RGB images, depth images, point clouds, segmentation masks, 3D object model meshes; single arm, two-finger embodiment: Franka Emika Panda] See the linked repository for more details!

Events Workshops 🤖 Workshops: ROMANDIC Winter School on Robot Handling of Deformables February 9-13, 2026, Kranjska Gora, Slovenia A winter school on Robot handling of deformable objects, with an emphasis on textile, from February 9th to 13th, 2026 as part of the ROMANDIC project . The purpose of the winter school is to address the underlying topics of robot handling of deformables and get hands-on experience in the specifics of perception, simulation, use of robots, and applications in the field. We have invited the leading scientists and practitioners in this field to give lectures and we have prepared interactive sessions / mini projects with the use of collaborative robots and simulation packages. Upcoming Events 1000 more rows at the bottom A winter school on Robot handling of deformable objects, with an emphasis on textile, from February 9th to 13th, 2026 as part of the ROMANDIC project . The purpose of the winter school is to address the underlying topics of robot handling of deformables and get hands-on experience in the specifics of perception, simulation, use of robots, and applications in the field. We have invited the leading scientists and practitioners in this field to give lectures and we have prepared interactive sessions / mini projects with the use of collaborative robots and simulation packages. https://project-romandic.eu/winter-school-2026/  What’s coming up soon? IROS 2025: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2025, October 19-25, 2025, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China; check out the following Competitions and Workshops related to robot manipulation and see the linked repos for more information: October 19, 2025 [1 competition] AgiBot World Challenge October 20, 2025 [10 workshops] RObotic MAnipulation of Deformable Objects (ROMADO 2025) Benchmarking in Soft Robotics Towards Community-driven Standards for Simulations, Sensing, and Control Perception and Planning for Mobile Manipulation in Changing Environments Frontiers in Dynamic, Intelligent, and Adaptive Multi-Arm Manipulation Benchmarking via Competitions in Robotic Grasping and Manipulation – 2nd Edition Tactile Sensing Toward Robot Dexterity and Intelligence Robotic Fine Manipulation: Integrating Tactile, Visual, and Intelligent Control Intelligent Robotics: Harnessing Embodied Intelligence and Learning for Next-Generation Manipulation Robot Learning From Human Teleoperation: Prospects and Challenges 4th Workshop on Mobile Manipulation and Embodied Intelligence (MOMA.v4): Towards Next-Gen Mobile Manipulation with Modularity, Reconfiguration, and Generalisation October 24, 2025 [5 workshops] SPACE: Semantic Planning of robotic Agents in Collaborative Environments Bimanual Manipulation: Advancing Human-Humanoid Interaction and Collaboration Beyond R,r,reply- Articles: Towards Evidence Based Measurable Robotics Research Contact and Impact-Aware Manipulation (CIM25) RoDGE: Robotic Data Generation and Evaluation: Bridging Simulation and Real-World Deployment 🤖 Subscribe to the Robot Manipulation Events Google Calendar to stay in the loop!

🤖 Have suggestions for open-source products or benchmarking assets that should be added? Submit them here! https://forms.gle/LHrtmDpm82X4qrDk6 🤖 Have suggestions for events we should add? Use this form to let us know! https://forms.gle/PfiSRjcuQnavbPNS9

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Adam Norton, Community Facilitator, COMPARE Ecosystem

Improving Open-Source and Benchmarking for Robot Manipulation

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