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name: locomotion-manipulation description: "Use high-level dm_control locomotion, soccer, mocap, walker, prop, and manipulation task families." metadata: disco-role: operating disable-model-invocation: true license: Apache 2.0

dm_control locomotion and manipulation router

Use this sub-skill when the task is about selecting or using built-in high-level dm_control manipulation, locomotion, soccer, walker, mocap, arena, or prop families. These are Composer-backed environments and components; they can be stepped with the same dm_env loop style as suite tasks once an environment is constructed.

Route first

• For ready-made manipulation registry tasks, read references/manipulation-reference.md to choose features versus vision, validate names/tags, load with dm_control.manipulation.load, and smoke-test specs.
• For locomotion examples, walkers, arenas, soccer, mocap/reference-pose tracking, and asset/data caveats, read references/locomotion-reference.md before constructing or importing heavier task families.
• For common failures around unknown names/tags, feature/vision confusion, missing HDF5/labmaze/assets, expensive demos, and rendering requirements, read references/troubleshooting.md.
• Run scripts/list_locomotion_manipulation.py to list installed manipulation tasks/tags and verify that common locomotion example modules import; add --smoke-manipulation for a one-reset/one-step manipulation smoke.

Boundaries

• Generic Control Suite tasks and benchmark loops belong in ../suite-rl-workflows/SKILL.md.
• Building new Composer tasks/entities, custom observables, or reusable robot abstractions from scratch belongs in ../composer-environments/SKILL.md.
• Rendering backend operations, viewer windows, and pixel-render troubleshooting belong in ../rendering-viewer-assets/SKILL.md.

Quick decision checklist

1. If the user names a manipulation task or asks for Jaco arm/hand tasks, validate it against dm_control.manipulation.ALL and load it with dm_control.manipulation.load(name, seed=...).
2. If the user wants low-dimensional observations, prefer manipulation names ending in _features; if they want camera observations, use _vision and verify rendering support separately.
3. If the user names CMU humanoid, rodent, soccer, maze, corridor, bowl, target, or mocap/reference-pose tracking, treat it as locomotion/Composer-backed and inspect specs with a short reset/step before any long rollout.
4. If the task requires new arenas, reward functions, entities, or observables beyond choosing/configuring built-ins, route to Composer rather than extending this catalog inline.