Visual Spatial Reasoning

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Overview

Visual spatial reasoning asks whether models can understand where things are, how they relate, and how scenes change across viewpoints or actions. Common approaches add explicit geometry such as depth, coordinates, bounding boxes, scene graphs, or maps, and combine these with structured reasoning, visual memory, tools, or imagined views. Benchmarks test static image relations and transformations, multi-view and video understanding, and embodied tasks such as navigation and manipulation. Models have improved with targeted data and training, but often rely on language priors rather than visual evidence and remain unreliable on cross-view, long-horizon, and action-grounded tasks.

Latest papers

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251 papers40 papers in the last four weeks, up 264% on the four weeks before. 0.2% of all new papers.

  1. Representing the Unseen: Rethinking Visual Imagination for Spatial Reasoning

    Oct 27, 2026Zengqi Zhao, Zun Wang, Shoubin Yu +2Visual Spatial ReasoningSpatial Reasoning

    UNC Chapel Hill

  2. RoboReason: Boosting Robotics-Relevant VLM Reasoning Through Scalable Data Generation

    Oct 24, 2026Sagnik Anupam, Utkarsh Lal, Aneesh Edara +5VLMs for RoboticsVisual Reasoning

    University of Pennsylvania

  3. ΨΨ-0.6: Adaptive Streams of Thought in a Unified Vision-Language World Model

    Oct 23, 2026Khai Loong Aw, Klemen Kotar, Baihan Zhang +5VLM ReasoningWorld Models for VLA Models

    Stanford University

  4. Think-Capture: Active 3D Geometry Acquisition for Spatial Reasoning in Vision-Language Models

    Oct 21, 2026Junjie Wang, Zhihao Yuan, Yunhan Tang +7Visual Spatial Reasoning3D VLMs

    FNii-Shenzhen · CUHK-Shenzhen · University of Electronic Science and Technology of China +1

  5. From Views to Worlds: Active Exploration over 3D Worlds for Vision-Language Models

    Oct 17, 2026Qijian Tian, Jiayu Ying, Ke Fan +2Visual Spatial Reasoning3D Scene Understanding

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China · East China Normal University, Shanghai, China

  6. Look, Reason, Draw a Region: Recursive Refinement for Spatial Context Prediction

    Oct 16, 2026Wajeeha Tahir, Anna Tegon, Lionnus Kesting +4Spatial Context ModelingVisual Spatial Reasoning

    Integrated Systems Laboratory, ETH Zürich, Switzerland · Pázmány Péter Catholic University, Hungary

  7. Thinking from Above: Efficient Spatial Reasoning with Bird's-Eye-View Visual Tokens

    Oct 15, 2026Faizan Siddiqui, Nirav Savaliya, Sahith Reddy Chada +1Visual Spatial ReasoningBird's-Eye-View Representation

    Honda Research Institute USA

  8. EgoP2^{2}C: Internalizing Plan-Perceive-Compose for Spatial Reasoning in Egocentric Video

    Oct 15, 2026Chaoyu Li, Arka Sadhu, Yuliang Li +3Visual Spatial ReasoningMultimodal Spatial Reasoning

    Arizona State University · Meta

  9. DK-VLM: Geometry as Position for Spatial Reasoning in Vision-Language Models

    Oct 15, 2026Han Su, Meng Tian, Tianyu Huang +7Visual Spatial ReasoningSpatial Reasoning

    Harbin Institute of Technology · Yinwang Intelligent Technology · Huawei

  10. MJev-Spatial: System One Spatial Intelligence via Native Attention Matching

    Oct 15, 2026Luozheng Qin, Yuhan Zhu, Changhai Zhou +10Spatial Reasoning in Language ModelsVisual Spatial Reasoning

  11. Anvil: Scaling Embodied Spatial Intelligence through Knowledge Recirculation

    Oct 15, 2026Weilin Ruan, Bohan Zhou, Jinghao Li +12Embodied Spatial ReasoningEmbodied Reasoning

    The Chinese University of Hong Kong · The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)

  12. What Generation Knows: Unlocking Fine-Grained Understanding in Unified Multimodal Models

    Oct 14, 2026Tengju Ru, Weitong Lian, Zecong Tang +6Multimodal UnderstandingUnified Multimodal Models

    Zhejiang University · Shenzhen Loop Area Institute · The University of Hong Kong +1

  13. Frame Evidence:A Benchmark for Reference Frames and Visual Evidence in Multi-Image Spatial Reasoning

    Oct 14, 2026Chunxi Luo, Qishuai Ding, Xingchen Peng +6Spatial Reasoning BenchmarksSpatial Reasoning

    Shanghai University · Byaidata · East China University of Science and Technology +1

  14. GeoReader: Learning Latent Geometry for Spatial Reasoning in Vision-Language Models

    Oct 13, 2026Rong Li, Shijie Li, Jiangyong Huang +7Geospatial QAVisual Spatial Reasoning

    The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou) · Beijing Institute for General Artificial Intelligence · Agency for Science, A*STAR +3

  15. RoTA-Bench: Evaluating 3D Spatial Reasoning through Interactive Projection Alignment

    Oct 13, 2026Qingchuan Ma, Yuexiao Ma, Xiang Meng +73D Spatial ReasoningSpatial Reasoning Benchmarks

    Key Laboratory of Multimedia Trusted Perception and Efficient Computing, Ministry of Education of China, Xiamen University, 361005, P.R. China. · CCDS, Nanyang Technological University · Institute of Artificial Intelligence, Xiamen University

  16. EvoSpatial: Experience-Driven Skill and Tool Evolution for Spatial Reasoning Agents

    Oct 12, 2026Bin Yu, Shijie Lian, Zhaolong Shen +10Tool-Using AgentsSpatial Reasoning

    Harbin Institute of Technology · Zhongguancun Academy · DeepCybo +5

  17. ReTAC: Residual Test-Time Agentic Computation for Video Spatial Reasoning

    Oct 12, 2026Yike Wu, Keyan Chen, Qixiong Wang +6Test-Time Scaling for VLMsVideo Reasoning

    Nanyang Technological University · Xiaohongshu Inc. · Zhejiang University of Technology +1

  18. When VLMs Destroy What They Know: Spatial Representations Fall Below Lexical Priors

    Oct 9, 2026Shubh Garg, Chen ShaniFaithfulness in VLMsVLM Evaluation

    Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology · Tel Aviv University

  19. SpatialASM: Internalizing Active Mentalization for Spatial Reasoning

    Oct 9, 2026Yuhong Liu, Shenxi Wu, Junyi Chi +5Visual Spatial ReasoningVisual Reasoning

    The Chinese University of Hong Kong · Shanghai AI Laboratory · Fudan University +2

  20. CaptchaAgent: Verifiable Visual Reasoning for CAPTCHA Solving

    Oct 9, 2026Shangquan Sun, Ruoyu Chen, Zhirui Liu +4CAPTCHA SolvingTool-Using Vision-Language Agents

    Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. · the School of Cyber Security, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. · the School of Cyber Science and Technology, Shenzhen Campus of Sun Yat-sen University, No. 66, Gongchang Road, Guangming District, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518107, P.R. China. +2

  21. SpaceCast-Bench: Evaluating Predictive Spatial Reasoning in Vision-Language Models

    Oct 8, 2026Hongxing Li, Jinyue Su, Dingming Li +5Spatial ReasoningSpatial Reasoning Benchmarks

    Zhejiang University

  22. Seek-and-View Reasoning for Multi-View Spatial Understanding

    Oct 8, 2026Qixiang Chen, Cheng Zhang, Fucai Ke +3Multimodal Spatial ReasoningVisual Spatial Reasoning

    Monash University · The Chinese University of Hong Kong

  23. GAGR-Lab: Evaluating Joint Spatial-Geometric and Analytic Function Reasoning

    Oct 7, 2026Jingyao Zhang, Yun Li, Lu HanSpatial Reasoning BenchmarksMathematical Reasoning

  24. SAVU-BENCH: A Real-World Benchmark for Spatial Audio-Visual Understanding

    Oct 7, 2026Yu Chen, Ruihang Liu, Yangguang Xu +5Audio-Visual UnderstandingSpatial Reasoning Benchmarks

    University of Western Australia · University of Science and Technology Beijing · Monash University

  25. 2D Spatial Reasoning with Adaptive Neural Cellular Automata

    Oct 6, 2026Martin Spitznagel, Janis KeuperNeural Cellular AutomataVisual Spatial Reasoning

    Institute for Machine Learning and Analytics (IMLA), Offenburg University, Germany · University of Mannheim, Germany

  26. Render to Reason: Novel-View Semantic Prediction Improves Spatial Understanding in VLMs

    Oct 4, 2026Yuqun Wu, Yao Xiao, Chuhang Zou +2Visual Spatial Reasoning3D VQA

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign · Meta

  27. Fine-Tuning VLM for Enhancing AI's Spatial Intelligence: Understanding 3D and 2D Rotations

    Oct 3, 2026Uttamasha Monjoree, Wei YanVisual Spatial Reasoning3D Spatial Reasoning

    Department of Architecture Texas A&M University College Station, USA

  28. From Sight to Foresight: Predictive Spatial Reasoning in Vision-Language Models

    Oct 2, 2026Feiran Wang, Xiaoqi Wang, Ziwei Li +3Visual Spatial ReasoningVLM Reasoning

    University of Illinois at Chicago · Bosch Research North America · Bosch Center for Artificial Intelligence (BCAI)

  29. LOCUS: Landmark-Oriented Container Discrimination Using Spatial Graphs

    Oct 2, 2026Taylor Bergeron, Shibani Senthilbabu, Kevin LeahyRobotic Object SearchRobotics

    Department of Robotics Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA

  30. KilometerVision: A New Frontier for Large-Scale Spatial Intelligence in VLMs

    Sep 30, 2026Aravindh Mahendran, Michael King, Matthew Koichi Grimes +12Spatial Reasoning BenchmarksVisual Spatial Reasoning

    Google DeepMind, Berlin, Germany · Google DeepMind, London, UK · Princeton University, Princeton, USA +3