On May 19-23, 2025, the Sim2Real Challenge (S2R2025), hosted by the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Atlanta, USA, brought together 83 elite teams from around the globe. Among them were representatives from 52 prestigious universities and 5 scientific research institutions, including Tsinghua University, Harvard University, the National University of Singapore and the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence. After a rigorous two-month online simulation phase, eight teams advanced to the offline Sim2Real finals. The Youth2Real team from Tsinghua University’s Department of Computer Science and Technology, led by Professor Fuchun Sun, emerged as the champion of the ICRA 2025 Sim2Real Challenge. The team comprised members Huaidong Zhou, Yongfeng Rong, Zhiying Yang, Yulong Xia, and Zheheng Fan.

Simulated environment and real-world competition scene

The Youth2Real team distinguished itself with an innovative solution based on embodied intelligence technology. Their approach integrated multitask natural semantic interaction, knowledge-driven autonomous learning and orchestration of general manipulation skills, cross-task behavior learning and generalization, and a seamless sim-to-real transfer learning strategy. This enabled the mobile dual-arm robot to autonomously learn skills such as grasping and transporting in a virtual simulation environment and efficiently transfer these skills to real-world robotic systems. The solution significantly enhanced the robot’s capabilities in multitask processing, autonomous skill learning, rapid skill transfer, and generalization of manipulation skills across diverse scenarios.

The IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), established in 1984, is one of the most influential academic events in the global robotics and automation community. The Sim2Real Challenge, now in its fourth year, has become a cornerstone of the conference, pushing the boundaries of robotic innovation.

Editor: Li Han