As Astra robot videos go viral, researcher revives Brooks' 'simulation is doomed to succeed' warning
m_wulfmeier · x · 2026-09-17
As recent Astra (etc.) robotics demo videos go viral, Markus Wulfmeier points back to roboticist Rodney Brooks' classic line "simulation is doomed to succeed" — flawless simulation performance can mask real sim-to-real gaps, and the more dazzling the demo, the more skepticism it deserves about physical-world generalization. He adds the model is still impressive and opens up plenty of research directions.
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