Sitzmann clarifies: only learned systems generalize to unknown in-the-wild objects
vincesitzmann · x · 2026-09-20
Responding to the Wiggle and Go authors, Vincent Sitzmann clarifies his ECCV remark: if you know the rope will be attached to your robot and can make a bunch of assumptions, system identification and physics simulation work reasonably well.
His actual point: for unknown, in-the-wild objects, the only systems that can hope to generalize are learned systems — whether video world models or agentic trial-and-error systems — and any specialized model will perform worse in that setting.
Related event: Robot Learns Rope Dynamics with a Single Wiggle, Sparking Debate(3 posts)→
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