Blindfolded Experts Generalize Better:

Insights from Robotic Manipulation and Videogames

Ev Zisselman, Mirco Mutti, Shelly Francis-Meretzki, Elisei Shafer, Aviv Tamar

Best Paper Award at ICML EXAIT

NeurIPS 2025

ArXiv

Github code

Data

Blindfolded Expert

Expert

Note: We record observations without the mask for the BC algorithm!

Overview video (5 min)

blindfolded_expert_NeurIPS25.mp4

Results

Cloning blindfolded experts achieves better generalization compared with the cloning of standard experts in all tasks.

Procgen maze (200 Training levels)

Procgen heist (200 Training levels)

Expert BC (Test)

Failure

ppo_seed_1515946232_prevseed_1515946232_500_test.mp4

Blindfolded Expert BC (Test)

Success

blindfolded_seed_1056019863_prevseed_1515946232_106_test.mp4

Cloning the blindfolded expert leads to more exploratory behavior that generalizes better to test levels.

Note that even for failure cases, cloning the blindfolded expert still explores the maze.

Expert BC (Test)

Failure - limited exploration

ppo_seed_665724506_prevseed_665724506_500_test.mp4

Blindfolded Expert BC (Test)

Failure - but still explors

blindfolded_seed_1393719341_prevseed_665724506_500_test.mp4

Peg Insertion Experts' observation

Examples of the expert's views during demonstrations:
The full observations (Expert) vs. the masked observations (Blindfolded Expert).
Each observation comprises a frame from wrist camera 1 (left) and wrist camera 2 (right).

Note: We record the observations without the mask for the BC algorithm!

Expert

wrist 1 wrist 2

2025-05-25_16-13-07_failed.mp4

Blindfolded Expert

2025-05-25_16-17-24_failed-SEG.mp4

Peg insertion

Results

Cloning blindfolded experts achieves better generalization compared with the cloning of standard experts in all tasks.

Expert BC (Train)

The robot learns task-dependent behavior for training:
Aligning the shapes before inserting.

C0053.MP4

Blindfolded Expert BC (Train)

The robot learns a general behavior for training:
Exploring the domain and searching for the insertion angle and position.

C0045.MP4

Expert BC (Test)

Fails to align the shape when handling previously unseen pegs (test).

C0043.MP4

Blindfolded Expert BC (Test)

Explores the domain and finds the insertion pose of all test shapes (test).

C0033.MP4