AM-Bench: A Modular Simulation Suite and Benchmark for Aerial Manipulation Policy Learning

Yutong Wang; Dongjae Lee; Xiaofeng Guo; Yuanzhu Zhan; Yufei Jiang; Bavin Saravanan; Muqing Cao; Jia Xie; Chenyang Mao; Sebastian Scherer; Junyi Geng; Guanya Shi

arXiv · 2609.00641

AM-Bench: A Modular Simulation Suite and Benchmark for Aerial Manipulation Policy Learning

Yutong Wang·Dongjae Lee·Xiaofeng Guo·Yuanzhu Zhan·Yufei Jiang·Bavin Saravanan·Muqing Cao·Jia Xie·Chenyang Mao·Sebastian Scherer·Junyi Geng·Guanya Shi

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Abstract

Standardized benchmarks have played a central role in advancing robot manipulation learning, yet most focus on ground-supported manipulation systems, which limits their applicability to dynamics-critical domains such as aerial manipulation (AM). AM presents distinct system-level challenges, including environmental disturbances, coupled dynamics between the manipulator and floating base, and constrained degrees of freedom. Consequently, task performance depends jointly on robot embodiment, low-level control, and high-level policy design. We introduce AM-Bench, a modular simulation suite and benchmark for multirotor-based AM policy learning. AM-Bench includes representative embodiments spanning underactuated, fully actuated, and overactuated systems, 12 tasks across contact, transport, and constrained interaction, configurable aerodynamic disturbances and actuator saturation, standard low-level controllers, and baseline policy-learning algorithms. Unlike prior manipulation benchmarks that primarily emphasize end-to-end policy performance, AM-Bench enables system-level evaluation of how embodiment, control, disturbances, and policy choices interact. We demonstrate its diagnostic value through three simulation studies spanning high-level policies, policy--control interfaces, and embodiments, together with real-world validation of modeled effects and a hardware test of the learning pipeline.

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Yutong Wang, Dongjae Lee, Xiaofeng Guo, Yuanzhu Zhan, Yufei Jiang, Bavin Saravanan, Muqing Cao, Jia Xie, Chenyang Mao, Sebastian Scherer, Junyi Geng, Guanya Shi. 2026-09-01. AM-Bench: A Modular Simulation Suite and Benchmark for Aerial Manipulation Policy Learning. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.00641

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