ST-BiBench: Benchmarking Multi-Stream Multimodal Coordination in Bimanual Embodied Tasks for MLLMs

Abstract

Multimodal Large Language Models (MLLMs) have significantly advanced the landscape of embodied AI, yet transitioning to synchronized bimanual coordination introduces formidable challenges in multi-stream multimodal integration. We introduce ST-BiBench, a comprehensive multi-tier framework for evaluating spatio-temporal multimodal coordination. Our approach centers on Strategic Coordination Planning, assessing high-level cross-modal reasoning over multiple action and perception streams. To investigate the "proximity paradox"-where semantically coherent plans fail to align with spatially grounded visual inputs-we incorporate Foundational Spatial Grounding to verify workspace awareness and arm-selection logic. Furthermore, we probe model frontiers through Fine-Grained Action Control, investigating whether MLLMs can directly synthesize high-dimensional continuous action modalities (16-Dim) from complex multimodal metadata. Evaluating 30+ state-of-the-art MLLMs, we uncover a persistent and pervasive "coordination paradox"-a significant gap between high-level strategic reasoning and fine-grained physical execution. Results reveal that while frontier MLLMs excel at logic-driven strategy, they frequently suffer from perception-logic disconnection and multi-stream interference during multimodal fusion. ST-BiBench provides a platform for identifying critical bottlenecks in multi-stream multimodal fusion and cross-modal alignment for complex embodied tasks.