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Physically Embodied Gaussian Splatting: A Realtime Correctable World Model for Robotics (2406.10788v1)

Published 16 Jun 2024 in cs.RO

Abstract: For robots to robustly understand and interact with the physical world, it is highly beneficial to have a comprehensive representation - modelling geometry, physics, and visual observations - that informs perception, planning, and control algorithms. We propose a novel dual Gaussian-Particle representation that models the physical world while (i) enabling predictive simulation of future states and (ii) allowing online correction from visual observations in a dynamic world. Our representation comprises particles that capture the geometrical aspect of objects in the world and can be used alongside a particle-based physics system to anticipate physically plausible future states. Attached to these particles are 3D Gaussians that render images from any viewpoint through a splatting process thus capturing the visual state. By comparing the predicted and observed images, our approach generates visual forces that correct the particle positions while respecting known physical constraints. By integrating predictive physical modelling with continuous visually-derived corrections, our unified representation reasons about the present and future while synchronizing with reality. Our system runs in realtime at 30Hz using only 3 cameras. We validate our approach on 2D and 3D tracking tasks as well as photometric reconstruction quality. Videos are found at https://embodied-gaussians.github.io/.

Citations (8)

Summary

  • The paper introduces a dual Gaussian-particle representation that seamlessly fuses physical dynamics with visual state rendering for robotics.
  • It integrates online visual feedback with position-based dynamics to correct errors via photometric loss minimization in real time.
  • Experimental results show reduced tracking error and enhanced reconstruction quality, enabling robust state prediction in dynamic environments.

Physically Embodied Gaussian Splatting: A Real-time Correctable World Model for Robotics

The development of an accurate and efficient world model is paramount for advanced robotic systems that need to interact reliably with dynamic environments. This paper introduces a novel, real-time correctable world model that utilizes a dual "Gaussian-Particle" representation. This approach focuses on fusion between particle-based physics simulation and Gaussian splatting to achieve integrated physical and visual state prediction and correction. By addressing geometry, physics, and visual appearance, the model provides a comprehensive multi-modal representation of the physical world, which enhances perception, planning, and control functions for robotics.

Key Contributions

There are three main contributions of the proposed approach:

  1. Dual Gaussian-Particle Representation: The paper introduces a sophisticated dual representation that couples particle-based physical dynamics with 3D Gaussians, allowing to render visual states through a splatting process. The particles account for the geometry of objects, while 3D Gaussians represent the visual appearance of the physical world.
  2. Real-Time Visual Feedback Integration: The model can execute online corrections of the physical state by leveraging continuous visual feedback from cameras. This is achieved through minimizing the photometric loss between projected and observed images, enabling real-time corrective forces that steer the system towards physical and visual synchronization.
  3. Robust Initialization and Integration Process: The model initiates from RGBD data and instance maps, and the paper provides a detailed initialization procedure that fills object bounding boxes with spherical Gaussians to establish the starting state. Integration into the real-time system is streamlined using three cameras, offering efficient operation even within constrained computational resources.

Methodology

The methodological framework builds on the Position-Based Dynamics (PBD) for the physics simulation, which includes handling ground, collision, and shape matching constraints for coherent object interactions. Gaussian splatting serves as the rendering backbone for visual state representation, allowing visual forces derived from photometric losses to influence particle states.

  • Position-Based Dynamics (PBD) Simulation: Efficient for real-time dynamics, PBD is employed to handle particle simulations with various physical constraints that regulate behaviors like collisions and collective object deformations.
  • Gaussian Splatting: This technique enables the representation of the visual state using 3D Gaussians; the splatting process is differentiable, facilitating efficient synchronization of the physical and visual states through gradient-based optimization.

The integration of PBD and Gaussian splatting is performed in a loop where predictions via PBD simulations are corrected using feedback derived from visual observations, iteratively optimizing the system's accuracy in modeling real-world dynamics.

Experimental Evaluation

The proposed model was evaluated on diverse simulated and real-world tasks, highlighting its ability to maintain low tracking error and high photometric reconstruction quality even in highly dynamic scenarios. Experimental results show that integrating physical priors with visual feedback mechanisms significantly enhances the system’s robustness in tracking moving objects accurately, as evidenced by comparative evaluations against baselines like Dynamic 3D Gaussians (D3DGS) and CoTracker.

Implications and Future Directions

Theoretically, this work represents a stride towards harmonizing physics-based and vision-based systems for enhanced model fidelity in robotic applications. Practically, it offers a mechanism for real-time correction and synchronization, essential for reliable real-world deployment of robots. Future advancements may focus on expanding the applicability of this model to more complex scenes and improving the underlying learning algorithms to extend beyond the limitations observed in highly dynamic or misaligned scenarios observed during experimentation.

The presented framework lays a foundational approach for further exploration in robotic simulation, visual state rendering, and dynamic environment interaction, paving the way for more autonomous, perceptive, and adaptable robotic systems in real-world environments.

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