mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Equivariant Diffusion Policy

arXiv 2407.01812 ↗First posted 1 Jul 2024cs.RO cs.LGcited by 66

On the map: Diffusion models → Diffusion and flow policies for robotics

Abstract (arXiv)

Recent work has shown diffusion models are an effective approach to learning the multimodal distributions arising from demonstration data in behavior cloning. However, a drawback of this approach is the need to learn a denoising function, which is significantly more complex than learning an explicit policy. In this work, we propose Equivariant Diffusion Policy, a novel diffusion policy learning method that leverages domain symmetries to obtain better sample efficiency and generalization in the denoising function. We theoretically analyze the SO(2) symmetry of full 6-DoF control and characterize when a diffusion model is SO(2)-equivariant. We furthermore evaluate the method empirically on a set of 12 simulation tasks in MimicGen, and show that it obtains a success rate that is, on average, 21.9% higher than the baseline Diffusion Policy. We also evaluate the method on a real-world system to show that effective policies can be learned with relatively few training samples, whereas the baseline Diffusion Policy cannot.

Key facts. Cited by 66 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Diffusion and flow policies for robotics, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 49 of its 59 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 1 Jul 2024.

Builds on

49 of 59 references.

Closest ancestors · 7

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2023Diffusion-EDFs: Bi-equivariant Denoising Generative Modeling on SE(3) for Visual Robotic Manipulation6 Sep
  2. 2023EquiDiff: A Conditional Equivariant Diffusion Model For Trajectory Prediction12 Aug
  3. 2023EDGI: Equivariant Diffusion for Planning with Embodied Agents22 Mar
  4. 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusion7 Mar
  5. 2023AdaptDiffuser: Diffusion Models as Adaptive Self-evolving Planners3 Feb
  6. 2023Imitating Human Behaviour with Diffusion Models25 Jan
  7. 2022Diffusion Policies as an Expressive Policy Class for Offline Reinforcement Learning12 Aug

Other references · 42

  1. 2015Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognitioncited by 52,096
  2. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  3. 2020Denoising Diffusion Implicit Modelscited by 9,781
  4. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,058
  5. 2019Generative Modeling by Estimating Gradients of the Data Distributioncited by 4,101
  6. 2023Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardwarecited by 1,568
  7. 2018On the Continuity of Rotation Representations in Neural Networkscited by 1,214
  8. 2022Planning with Diffusion for Flexible Behavior Synthesiscited by 1,061
  9. 2021What Matters in Learning from Offline Human Demonstrations for Robot Manipulationcited by 725
  10. 2022Equivariant Diffusion for Molecule Generation in 3Dcited by 677
  11. 2022GeoDiff: a Geometric Diffusion Model for Molecular Conformation Generationcited by 516
  12. 2021Implicit Behavioral Cloningcited by 452
30 more
  1. 2019Relay Policy Learning: Solving Long-Horizon Tasks via Imitation and Reinforcement Learningcited by 384
  2. 2023MimicGen: A Data Generation System for Scalable Robot Learning using Human Demonstrationscited by 327
  3. 2017Deep Imitation Learning for Complex Manipulation Tasks from Virtual Reality Teleoperationcited by 289
  4. 2021Neural Descriptor Fields: SE(3)-Equivariant Object Representations for Manipulationcited by 209
  5. 20233D Equivariant Diffusion for Target-Aware Molecule Generation and Affinity Predictioncited by 177
  6. 2020Incorporating Symmetry into Deep Dynamics Models for Improved Generalizationcited by 126
  7. 2019Self-Supervised Correspondence in Visuomotor Policy Learningcited by 107
  8. 2017Vision-Based Multi-Task Manipulation for Inexpensive Robots Using End-To-End Learning from Demonstrationcited by 100
  9. 2022SO(2)-Equivariant Reinforcement Learningcited by 84
  10. 2021What Matters for Adversarial Imitation Learning?cited by 70
  11. 2021Equivariant Q Learning in Spatial Action Spacescited by 62
  12. 2022Equivariant Descriptor Fields: SE(3)-Equivariant Energy-Based Models for End-to-End Visual Robotic Manipulation Learningcited by 56
  13. 2020Strictly Batch Imitation Learning by Energy-based Distribution Matchingcited by 54
  14. 2022Sample Efficient Grasp Learning Using Equivariant Modelscited by 53
  15. 2022SE(3)-Equivariant Relational Rearrangement with Neural Descriptor Fieldscited by 51
  16. 2022TAX-Pose: Task-Specific Cross-Pose Estimation for Robot Manipulationcited by 47
  17. 2022Equivariant Transporter Networkcited by 46
  18. 2022On-Robot Learning With Equivariant Modelscited by 42
  19. 2022Edge Grasp Network: A Graph-Based SE(3)-invariant Approach to Grasp Detectioncited by 35
  20. 2022The Surprising Effectiveness of Equivariant Models in Domains with Latent Symmetrycited by 33
  21. 2024Fourier Transporter: Bi-Equivariant Robotic Manipulation in 3Dcited by 33
  22. 2020The MAGICAL Benchmark for Robust Imitationcited by 32
  23. 2022SEIL: Simulation-augmented Equivariant Imitation Learningcited by 23
  24. 2023A General Theory of Correct, Incorrect, and Extrinsic Equivariancecited by 19
  25. 2023Leveraging Symmetries in Pick and Placecited by 19
  26. 2024Deep SE(3)-Equivariant Geometric Reasoning for Precise Placement Taskscited by 19
  27. 2023On Robot Grasp Learning Using Equivariant Modelscited by 12
  28. 2023Symmetric Models for Visual Force Policy Learningcited by 11
  29. 2022Continual Vision-based Reinforcement Learning with Group Symmetriescited by 10
  30. 2024Symmetry-aware Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Assembly under Partial Observability with a Soft Wristcited by 9

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2024: 6; 2025: 36; 2026: 24.

66 papers.

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  1. 2024Diffusion-VLA: Generalizable and Interpretable Robot Foundation Model via Self-Generated Reasoningcited by 57
  2. 2024Generalizable Humanoid Manipulation with 3D Diffusion Policiescited by 52
  3. 2025Failure Prediction at Runtime for Generative Robot Policiescited by 42
  4. 2024Motion Planning Diffusion: Learning and Adapting Robot Motion Planning with Diffusion Modelscited by 33
  5. 2025Learning Long-Context Diffusion Policies via Past-Token Predictioncited by 30
  6. 2025CordViP: Correspondence-based Visuomotor Policy for Dexterous Manipulation in Real-Worldcited by 18
  7. 2025Curating Demonstrations using Online Experiencecited by 18
  8. 2025FlowMP: Learning Motion Fields for Robot Planning with Conditional Flow Matchingcited by 15
  9. 2025Diagnose, Correct, and Learn from Manipulation Failures via Visual Symbolscited by 14
  10. 2025Two by Two: Learning Multi-Task Pairwise Objects Assembly for Generalizable Robot Manipulationcited by 13
  11. 2025SE(3)-Equivariant Robot Learning and Control: A Tutorial Surveycited by 10
  12. 2024What's the Move? Hybrid Imitation Learning via Salient Pointscited by 9
38 more
  1. 2025Demystifying Diffusion Policies: Action Memorization and Simple Lookup Table Alternativescited by 9
  2. 2025Latent Theory of Mind: A Decentralized Diffusion Architecture for Cooperative Manipulationcited by 9
  3. 2025FreqPolicy: Frequency Autoregressive Visuomotor Policy with Continuous Tokenscited by 9
  4. 2025Compose Your Policies! Improving Diffusion-based or Flow-based Robot Policies via Test-time Distribution-level Compositioncited by 9
  5. 2025SE(3)-Equivariant Diffusion Policy in Spherical Fourier Spacecited by 8
  6. 20254D Visual Pre-training for Robot Learningcited by 8
  7. 2024MATCH POLICY: A Simple Pipeline from Point Cloud Registration to Manipulation Policiescited by 6
  8. 2024High-Rank Irreducible Cartesian Tensor Decomposition and Bases of Equivariant Spacescited by 6
  9. 2025Constraint-Preserving Data Generation for Visuomotor Policy Learningcited by 6
  10. 2025R2RGEN: Real-to-Real 3D Data Generation for Spatially Generalized Manipulationcited by 6
  11. 2025Morphologically Symmetric Reinforcement Learning for Ambidextrous Bimanual Manipulationcited by 5
  12. 2025A Practical Guide for Incorporating Symmetry in Diffusion Policycited by 5
  13. 20253D Equivariant Visuomotor Policy Learning via Spherical Projectioncited by 5
  14. 2025AnchorDP3: 3D Affordance Guided Sparse Diffusion Policy for Robotic Manipulationcited by 5
  15. 2025ADPro: a Test-time Adaptive Diffusion Policy via Manifold-constrained Denoising and Task-aware Initialization for Robotic Manipulationcited by 4
  16. 2025EfficientFlow: Efficient Equivariant Flow Policy Learning for Embodied AIcited by 4
  17. 2025OMP: One-step Meanflow Policy with Directional Alignmentcited by 4
  18. 2025EquiReg: Equivariance Regularized Diffusion for Inverse Problemscited by 3
  19. 2025Hybrid Diffusion Policies with Projective Geometric Algebra for Efficient Robot Manipulation Learningcited by 3
  20. 2025Robotic Manipulation via Imitation Learning: Taxonomy, Evolution, Benchmark, and Challengescited by 3
  21. 2025UMIGen: A Unified Framework for Egocentric Point Cloud Generation and Cross-Embodiment Robotic Imitation Learningcited by 3
  22. 2025Partially Equivariant Reinforcement Learning in Symmetry-Breaking Environmentscited by 3
  23. 2025Coarse-to-Fine 3D Keyframe Transportercited by 2
  24. 2025Generalizable Hierarchical Skill Learning via Object-Centric Representationcited by 2
  25. 2025L1 Sample Flow for Efficient Visuomotor Learningcited by 2
  26. 2026Imitation from Heterogeneous Demonstrations using Grounded Latent-Action World Modelscited by 2
  27. 2026Selective Cross-View Consistency for World Action Models: Held-Out Viewpoint Robustness Without Test-Time Camera Informationcited by 2
  28. 2025Equivariant Volumetric Graspingcited by 1
  29. 2025SketchPlan: Diffusion Based Drone Planning From Human Sketchescited by 1
  30. 2025MATT-Diff: Multimodal Active Target Tracking by Diffusion Policycited by 1
  31. 2025Symmetry-Aware Steering of Equivariant Diffusion Policies: Benefits and Limitscited by 1
  32. 2026Jointly Learning Predicates and Actions Enables Zero-Shot Skill Compositioncited by 1
  33. 20263D-DLP: Self-Supervised 3D Object-Centric Scene Representation Learningcited by 1
  34. 2026EquiVLA: A General Framework for Rotationally Equivariant Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 1
  35. 2026Frequency-Aware Flow Matching for Continuous and Consistent Robotic Action Generationcited by 1
  36. 2026Learning to See While Learning to Act: Diffusion Models for Active Perception in Robot Imitationcited by 1
  37. 2026SAVLA: Symmetry-Aware Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulationcited by 1
  38. 2025PoseDiff: A Unified Diffusion Model Bridging Robot Pose Estimation and Video-to-Action Controlcited by 0

50 most cited of 66 All 66 (JSON)

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Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2024ET-SEED: Efficient Trajectory-Level SE(3) Equivariant Diffusion Policy
  2. 2025Rao-Blackwell Gradient Estimators for Equivariant Denoising Diffusion
  3. 2024Don't Start from Scratch: Behavioral Refinement via Interpolant-based Policy Diffusion
  4. 2024SymDiff: Equivariant Diffusion via Stochastic Symmetrisation
  5. 2024Structure Preserving Diffusion Models
  6. 2026Learning To Sample From Diffusion Models Via Inverse Reinforcement Learning
  7. 2025Two-Steps Diffusion Policy for Robotic Manipulation via Genetic Denoising
  8. 2026iADD: Improving Alignment and Diversity in Diffusion Policy Optimization