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World Models for Robotics

World models for robotics explained: how learned models can represent environments, predict outcomes and support planning for physical agents.

Published September 26, 2026 · Robot Embodiment Editorial

What is a world model?

A world model is a learned or engineered representation that captures useful structure about an environment and can support prediction, reasoning or planning.

Why robotics needs prediction

Robot actions change the physical state. Predicting possible outcomes can help a system choose actions before executing them, especially for long-horizon tasks.

Embodiment and world models

A useful model must account for the capabilities and dynamics of the agent interacting with the environment. This makes embodiment part of the predictive problem rather than an afterthought.

Explore the field

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