Progressive Policy Learning: A Hierarchical Framework for Dexterous Bimanual Manipulation

Kang-Won Lee, Jung-Woo Lee, Seongyong Kim and Soo-Chul Lim ()
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Kang-Won Lee: Department of Mechanical, Robotics and Energy Engineering, Dongguk University, 30, Pildong-ro 1gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea
Jung-Woo Lee: Department of Mechanical, Robotics and Energy Engineering, Dongguk University, 30, Pildong-ro 1gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea
Seongyong Kim: Department of Mechanical, Robotics and Energy Engineering, Dongguk University, 30, Pildong-ro 1gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea
Soo-Chul Lim: Department of Mechanical, Robotics and Energy Engineering, Dongguk University, 30, Pildong-ro 1gil, Jung-gu, Seoul 04620, Republic of Korea

Mathematics, 2025, vol. 13, issue 22, 1-18

Abstract: Dexterous bimanual manipulation remains a challenging task in reinforcement learning (RL) due to the vast state–action space and the complex interdependence between the hands. Conventional end-to-end learning struggles to handle this complexity, and multi-agent RL often faces limitations in stably acquiring cooperative movements. To address these issues, this study proposes a hierarchical progressive policy learning framework for dexterous bimanual manipulation. In the proposed method, one hand’s policy is first trained to stably grasp the object, and, while maintaining this grasp, the other hand’s manipulation policy is progressively learned. This hierarchical decomposition reduces the search space for each policy and enhances both the connectivity and the stability of learning by training the subsequent policy on the stable states generated by the preceding policy. Simulation results show that the proposed framework outperforms conventional end-to-end and multi-agent RL approaches. The proposed method was demonstrated via sim-to-real transfer on a physical dual-arm platform and empirically validated on a bimanual cube manipulation task.

Keywords: reinforcement learning; robot manipulation; artificial intelligence; machine learning; dexterous robotic hand (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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