Principle:ARISE Initiative Robosuite Texture Randomization
Metadata:
- robosuite
- Domain Randomization for Sim2Real
- Sim_To_Real_Transfer
- Computer_Vision
- last_updated: 2026-02-15 12:00 GMT
Overview
Technique for randomizing visual textures and material properties of simulation objects to improve visual robustness of learned policies.
Description
Texture randomization modifies the visual appearance of simulation objects by altering their textures and material properties. Four variation types are supported:
- rgb: Random solid colors
- checker: Checkerboard patterns
- noise: Perlin-like noise
- gradient: Color gradients
Material properties (reflectance, shininess, specular) can also be randomized. Local mode constrains variations to be close to original colors using interpolation parameters, preventing extreme visual changes that could make the task unlearnable.
Usage
Use as part of domain randomization for sim-to-real transfer when visual appearance variations are expected between simulation and real world. This is particularly important when training vision-based policies that need to generalize from simulated environments to real-world scenarios where lighting conditions, surface properties, and textures may differ significantly.
Theoretical Basis
The visual domain gap is a primary challenge in sim-to-real transfer for vision-based robotic systems. When policies are trained on simulated images, they may overfit to the specific visual characteristics of the simulation environment, leading to poor performance when deployed on real robots.
Texture randomization addresses this by forcing the policy to extract task-relevant features that are invariant to surface appearance. By exposing the policy to a wide variety of visual appearances during training, it learns to ignore superficial visual features and focus on geometric and spatial relationships that are critical for the task.
The four variation types provide different frequency characteristics:
- RGB variations provide low-frequency (solid color) changes
- Checker patterns provide medium-frequency periodic patterns
- Noise textures provide high-frequency irregular variations
- Gradient textures provide smooth color transitions
The local interpolation mode prevents extreme variations that could make the environment visually unrecognizable. By interpolating between the original colors and random variations, the textures remain within a reasonable perceptual distance from the original, ensuring the task remains learnable while still providing sufficient diversity for generalization.