Glossary · Control
Loco-manipulation
In brief
Loco-manipulation is the simultaneous coordination of locomotion and manipulation — walking while carrying a load, opening a door while stepping through it, manipulating an object that is itself moving. It is the practical capability that distinguishes a humanoid from a mobile arm or a stationary manipulator.
Most early humanoid demos either stood still and manipulated something or walked around without manipulating anything. Real-world tasks (carrying a box up stairs, opening a fridge while stepping toward it) require both at once, and the dynamics couple non-trivially: the act of carrying changes the leg controller's job; the act of stepping changes the arm controller's reachable workspace.
Loco-manipulation is the headline capability for industrial deployment. Boston Dynamics Atlas demos, Figure 03 warehouse demos, and Agility Digit's pickup-and-walk routines all explicitly showcase it.
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Glossary entries are upstream. The catalog is where the implementations live.