diff --git a/.github/workflows/cache_vcpkg.yml b/.github/workflows/cache_vcpkg.yml
index 26e81fe4121da..435a562da0a48 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/cache_vcpkg.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/cache_vcpkg.yml
@@ -36,7 +36,7 @@ jobs:
           %VCPKG_ROOT%\bootstrap-vcpkg.bat
 
       - name: Upload Artifacts
-        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
         with:
           name: base
           path: ${{ env.VCPKG_ROOT }}
@@ -50,11 +50,11 @@ jobs:
         zip-name: ["vcpkg-dartsim-deps-v7.0"]
         deps:
           [
-            "assimp ccd eigen3 entt fcl fmt spdlog bullet3 coin-or-ipopt freeglut glfw3 nlopt ode opencl opengl osg pagmo2 pybind11 tinyxml2 urdfdom yaml-cpp",
+            "assimp ccd eigen3 entt fcl fmt spdlog bullet3 coin-or-ipopt freeglut glfw3 nlopt ode opencl opengl osg pagmo2 tinyxml2 urdfdom yaml-cpp",
           ]
         include:
           - zip-name: "vcpkg-dartsim-deps-v6.14"
-            deps: "assimp ccd eigen3 fcl fmt spdlog bullet3 coin-or-ipopt flann freeglut glfw3 nlopt ode opengl osg pagmo2 pybind11 tinyxml2 urdfdom"
+            deps: "assimp ccd eigen3 fcl fmt spdlog bullet3 coin-or-ipopt flann freeglut glfw3 nlopt ode opengl osg pagmo2 tinyxml2 urdfdom"
 
           # - zip-name: "vcpkg-dartsim-deps-min-v7.0"
           #   deps: "assimp ccd eigen3 entt fcl fmt spdlog"
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ jobs:
           )
 
       - name: Upload Vcpkg Artifacts
-        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
+        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
         with:
           name: ${{ matrix.zip-name }}
           path: ./${{ matrix.zip-name }}.zip
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 24d40a165f211..18dca0d36833b 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -1,11 +1,7 @@
 #===============================================================================
 # CMake settings
 #===============================================================================
-if(WIN32)
-  cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.11)
-else()
-  cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.10.2)
-endif()
+cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16.3)
 
 project(dart)
 
@@ -106,6 +102,7 @@ option(DART_FAST_DEBUG "Add -O1 option for DEBUG mode build" OFF)
 # See: https://medium.com/@alasher/colored-c-compiler-output-with-ninja-clang-gcc-10bfe7f2b949
 option(DART_FORCE_COLORED_OUTPUT
   "Always produce ANSI-colored output (GNU/Clang only)." OFF)
+option(DART_DOWNLOAD_BUILD_DEPS "Download build dependencies" ON)
 
 #===============================================================================
 # Print intro
diff --git a/python/dartpy/CMakeLists.txt b/python/dartpy/CMakeLists.txt
index 9a897351a4523..7eceec05d5cdc 100644
--- a/python/dartpy/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/python/dartpy/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,31 @@
 #
 # This file is provided under the "BSD-style" License
 
+if(DART_DOWNLOAD_BUILD_DEPS)
+  include(FetchContent)
+  FetchContent_Declare(
+    pybind11
+    GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/pybind/pybind11.git
+    GIT_TAG        v2.11.1
+  )
+
+  # Set options
+  set(PYBIND11_TEST OFF CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
+  set(PYBIND11_FINDPYTHON ON CACHE BOOL "" FORCE)
+
+  # To suppress warning, Policy CMP0042 is not set
+  set(CMAKE_MACOSX_RPATH 1)
+
+  FetchContent_MakeAvailable(pybind11)
+else()
+  # Find pybind11, including PythonInterp and PythonLibs
+  find_package(pybind11 2.9.1 CONFIG)
+  if(NOT pybind11_FOUND)
+    message(WARNING "Disabling [dartpy] due to missing pybind11 >= 2.9.1.")
+    return()
+  endif()
+endif()
+
 if(NOT DARTPY_PYTHON_VERSION)
   set(DARTPY_PYTHON_VERSION 3.4 CACHE STRING "Choose the target Python version (e.g., 3.4, 2.7)" FORCE)
 endif()
@@ -16,7 +41,6 @@ set(PYBIND11_PYTHON_VERSION ${DARTPY_PYTHON_VERSION})
 if(WIN32)
   set(PYBIND11_FINDPYTHON TRUE)
 endif()
-find_package(pybind11 2.2.0 QUIET)
 if(NOT pybind11_FOUND)
   message(WARNING "Disabling [dartpy] due to missing pybind11 >= 2.2.0.")
   return()