Sim-to-Real Execution Gap
Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models are advancing fast, but hardware deployments fail because real-world physical data is scarce, expensive, and dangerous to harvest in public spaces. Simulations cannot capture non-linear edge conditions like mud, sudden weather shifts, or mechanical wear.
// UNMODELLED FAILURE MODES
- Non-linear surface conditions: mud, standing water, ice transitions
- Sudden weather shift inside a single trajectory window
- Mechanical wear drift across actuator duty cycles
- Public-space harvesting: legally constrained, expensive, unsafe
