Advances in 3D Modeling, Simulation, and Robotics

Recent developments in the field have seen significant strides in the areas of 3D modeling, simulation, and robotics, particularly in enhancing the realism and functionality of digital environments and robotic systems. 3D modeling has advanced with innovations in monocular depth estimation and food portion estimation, leveraging advancements in 3D reconstruction and generative models to improve accuracy and applicability in real-world scenarios. Simulation techniques have seen improvements in metric depth estimation and the synthesis of realistic materials, addressing long-standing challenges in scene understanding and material representation. Robotics has benefited from new simulation platforms that facilitate the learning of robotic skills in unbounded soft environments, enabling more efficient data collection and policy evaluation.

Noteworthy contributions include:

• A framework for accurate food portion estimation using monocular images, enhancing dietary monitoring.
• A novel approach to metric depth estimation that leverages generative diffusion models for improved scene understanding.
• A simulation platform designed for robotic skill learning in unbounded soft environments, reducing computational costs and storage requirements.
• An innovative method for 4D dynamic scene simulation that integrates multi-modal foundation models and video diffusion for enhanced realism and flexibility.