VLMs for Robotics

VLM: Vision-Language Model

Overview

This field studies how robots can use visual observations and language instructions to understand scenes, plan tasks, and act in the physical world. Common approaches adapt pretrained vision-language models with geometric or 3D grounding, maps and affordances, action heads, skill libraries, or feedback loops; some separate slow semantic planning from fast control. Researchers train and test these systems using robot demonstrations, human videos, simulation, and real-robot tasks, with benchmarks such as LIBERO, RLBench, and Habitat. A central challenge is turning plausible language-based reasoning into reliable, metrically grounded action despite occlusion, changing scenes, latency, and safety constraints.

Latest papers

CardsList

664 papers117 papers in the last four weeks, up 10% on the four weeks before. 0.7% of all new papers.

  1. A Deployable Embodied Vision-Language Navigation System with Hierarchical Cognition and Context-Aware Exploration

    Apr 23, 2026Kuan Xu, Ruimeng Liu, Yizhuo Yang +5Robot NavigationVision-Language Navigation

  2. CorridorVLA: Explicit Spatial Constraints for Generative Action Heads via Sparse Anchors

    Apr 23, 2026Dachong Li, ZhuangZhuang Chen, Jin Zhang +1Vision-Language-Action ModelsVLMs for Robotics

  3. ReCAPA: Hierarchical Predictive Correction to Mitigate Cascading Failures

    Apr 23, 2026Xiyin Zeng, Yuyu Sun, Haoyang Li +2Vision-Language-Action ModelsVision-Language Alignment

  4. Temporal Difference Calibration in Sequential Tasks: Application to Vision-Language-Action Models

    Apr 22, 2026Shelly Francis-Meretzki, Mirco Mutti, Yaniv Romano +1Uncertainty Estimation for VLA ModelsVision-Language-Action Models

  5. A Vision-Language-Action Model for Adaptive Ultrasound-Guided Needle Insertion and Needle Tracking

    Apr 22, 2026Yuelin Zhang, Qingpeng Ding, Longxiang Tang +2Robotic InsertionRobotic Ultrasound

  6. EmbodiedMidtrain: Bridging the Gap between Vision-Language Models and Vision-Language-Action Models via Mid-training

    Apr 21, 2026Yiyang Du, Zhanqiu Guo, Haochen Zhang +5VLM AdaptationVision-Language-Action Models

  7. VLA Foundry: A Unified Framework for Training Vision-Language-Action Models

    Apr 21, 2026Jean Mercat, Sedrick Keh, Kushal Arora +5Robotic ManipulationVLA Model Training

  8. LiveVLN: Breaking the Stop-and-Go Loop in Vision-Language Navigation

    Apr 21, 2026Xiangchen Wang, Weiye Zhu, Teng Wang +5Vision-Language NavigationAction Chunking

  9. GenerativeMPC: VLM-RAG-guided Whole-Body MPC with Virtual Impedance for Bimanual Mobile Manipulation

    Apr 21, 2026Marcelino Julio Fernando, Miguel Altamirano Cabrera, Jeffrin Sam +3Mobile ManipulationBimanual Robotic Manipulation

  10. Assessing VLM-Driven Semantic-Affordance Inference for Non-Humanoid Robot Morphologies

    Apr 21, 2026Jess Jones, Raul Santos-Rodriguez, Sabine HauertVLM EvaluationCross-Embodiment Robot Learning

  11. SYMBOLIZER: Symbolic Model-free Task Planning with VLMs

    Apr 20, 2026Sami Azirar, Zlatan Ajanovic, Hermann BlumSymbolic PlanningRobot Task Planning

  12. GaLa: Hypergraph-Guided Visual Language Models for Procedural Planning

    Apr 19, 2026Kun Wang, Yiming Li, Mingcheng Qu +3Visual Spatial ReasoningRobot Task Planning

  13. Rule-VLN: Bridging Perception and Compliance via Semantic Reasoning and Geometric Rectification

    Apr 18, 2026Jiawen Wen, Penglei Sun, Wenjie Zhang +4Safe Robot NavigationVision-Language Navigation

  14. Chain Of Interaction Benchmark (COIN): When Reasoning meets Embodied Interaction

    Apr 18, 2026Xianhao Wang, Xiaojian Ma, Haozhe Hu +7Long-Horizon Robotic ManipulationRobotics

  15. Long-Term Memory for VLA-based Agents in Open-World Task Execution

    Apr 17, 2026Xu Huang, Weixin Mao, Yinhao Li +2Agent MemoryLong-Horizon Robotic Manipulation

  16. ADAPT: Benchmarking Commonsense Planning under Unspecified Affordance Constraints

    Apr 16, 2026Pei-An Chen, Yong-Ching Liang, Jia-Fong Yeh +4Robot Task PlanningRobot Manipulation Benchmarks

  17. Foundation Models in Robotics: A Comprehensive Review of Methods, Models, Datasets, Challenges and Future Research Directions

    Apr 16, 2026Aggelos Psiris, Vasileios Argyriou, Evangelos K. Markakis +4Large Language Model-Based Robot PlanningRobot Foundation Models

  18. World-Value-Action Model: Implicit Planning for Vision-Language-Action Systems

    Apr 16, 2026Runze Li, Hongyin Zhang, Junxi Jin +5Vision-Language-Action ModelsModel-Based Planning

  19. SpaceMind: A Modular and Self-Evolving Embodied Vision-Language Agent Framework for Autonomous On-orbit Servicing

    Apr 15, 2026Aodi Wu, Haodong Han, Xubo Luo +3Tool-Using Vision-Language AgentsVLMs for Robotics

  20. Goal2Skill: Long-Horizon Manipulation with Adaptive Planning and Reflection

    Apr 15, 2026Zhen Liu, Xinyu Ning, Zhe Hu +8Long-Horizon Robotic ManipulationRobot Task Planning

  21. Evolvable Embodied Agent for Robotic Manipulation via Long Short-Term Reflection and Optimization

    Apr 15, 2026Jianzong Wang, Botao Zhao, Yayun He +2Self-Evolving AgentsRobotic Manipulation

  22. VULCAN: Vision-Language-Model Enhanced Multi-Agent Cooperative Navigation for Indoor Fire-Disaster Response

    Apr 14, 2026Shengding Liu, Qiben YanSearch-and-Rescue RoboticsMulti-Robot Coordination

  23. CLASP: Closed-loop Asynchronous Spatial Perception for Open-vocabulary Desktop Object Grasping

    Apr 13, 2026Yiran Ling, Wenxuan Li, Siying Dong +5Spatial Grounding for VLA ModelsRobotic Grasping

  24. Text-Guided 6D Object Pose Rearrangement via Closed-Loop VLM Agents

    Apr 10, 2026Sangwon Baik, Gunhee Kim, Mingi Choi +1Language-Conditioned Robot ManipulationObject Pose Estimation

  25. AssemLM: A Spatial Reasoning Multimodal Large Language Model for Robotic Assembly

    Apr 10, 2026Zhi Jing, Jinbin Qiao, Ouyang Lu +53D Spatial ReasoningRobotic Assembly

  26. TAIHRI: Task-Aware 3D Human Keypoints Localization for Close-Range Human-Robot Interaction

    Apr 10, 2026Ao Li, Yonggen Ling, Yiyang Lin +33D Human Pose EstimationHuman-Robot Interaction