{
  "$schema": "https://themachinepress.com/schemas/story-v1.schema.json",
  "schema_version": "1.0.0",
  "document_type": "machine_press_story",
  "story": {
    "story_id": "mp-2026-10-06-027",
    "source_story_id": "tmp-story-mulligan-failure-sampling-front-rail",
    "edition_id": "mp-2026-10-06-morning-0089",
    "edition_url": "https://themachinepress.com/edition/2026-10-06",
    "position": 16,
    "story_type": "dispatch",
    "section": "robotics",
    "editorial_classification": "editorial",
    "headline": "The Robot Practiced Where It Had Failed",
    "slug": "the-robot-practiced-where-it-had-failed",
    "dek": "Mulligan redirected supervised collection toward failed and untried starting states instead of repeating easy placements.",
    "summary": "Mulligan redirected supervised collection toward failed and untried starting states instead of repeating easy placements.",
    "body_text": "Uniform demonstration collection wastes operator time once failures concentrate in a small part of the task. Mulligan makes the initial-state distribution itself a decision, sending new episodes toward observed failures and untried placements. It also trains a value function on all data, including failed runs that imitation learning normally discards. Across three real robot tasks evaluated on 2,550 blinded held-out episodes and two simulated tasks, the combined system improved final real-task success by 10 to 34 percentage points over uniform collection at matched budgets. Human intervention kept 98% of collection episodes productive. The method treats failure locations as a scarce-data map rather than an embarrassment to average away.",
    "why_it_matters": "Mulligan redirected supervised collection toward failed and untried starting states instead of repeating easy placements.",
    "limitations": [],
    "importance": 7,
    "canonical_url": "https://themachinepress.com/story/mp-2026-10-06-027/the-robot-practiced-where-it-had-failed",
    "json_url": "https://themachinepress.com/story/mp-2026-10-06-027.json",
    "first_published_at": "2026-10-06T09:00:00.000-04:00",
    "modified_at": "2026-10-06T09:00:00.000-04:00",
    "content_status": "new",
    "is_carryover": false,
    "carryover_reason": null,
    "key_claims": [
      {
        "claim_id": "claim-mp-2026-10-06-027-001",
        "text": "Mulligan redirected supervised collection toward failed and untried starting states instead of repeating easy placements.",
        "source_ids": [
          "source-2026-10-06-016"
        ],
        "qualification": null
      }
    ],
    "source_ids": [
      "source-2026-10-06-016"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "robot learning",
      "data collection",
      "human intervention"
    ],
    "image_url": null,
    "corrections": []
  },
  "sources": [
    {
      "source_id": "source-2026-10-06-016",
      "title": "arXiv preprint 2610.05882",
      "publisher": "arXiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.05882",
      "canonical_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.05882",
      "source_type": "primary_research",
      "is_primary_source": true,
      "published_at": "2026-10-05T02:56:13.000-04:00",
      "accessed_at": "2026-10-06T08:25:42.165-04:00",
      "supports_claim_ids": [
        "claim-mp-2026-10-06-027-001"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "corrections": [],
  "publisher": {
    "name": "The Machine Press",
    "url": "https://themachinepress.com",
    "description": "A daily newspaper for the age of artificial intelligence."
  },
  "cite_this_report": {
    "title": "The Robot Practiced Where It Had Failed",
    "publisher": "The Machine Press",
    "published_at": "2026-10-06T09:00:00.000-04:00",
    "canonical_url": "https://themachinepress.com/story/mp-2026-10-06-027/the-robot-practiced-where-it-had-failed"
  }
}