Foundation Models

Embodiment

Embodiment is the physical form through which an agent senses and acts, encompassing its morphology, kinematics, actuation, and sensor suite. An embodiment defines the agent's observation and action spaces, so the same task demands different policies on a quadruped, a wheeled base, or a bimanual humanoid. Cross-embodiment research, exemplified by the Open X-Embodiment collaboration, trains single models across many robot bodies.

Why it matters for physical AI

Whether skills learned on one body transfer to another determines if robotics data can pool into shared foundation models or must be recollected per platform, one of the field's pivotal open questions.