# Semantically Controllable Augmentations for Generalizable Robot Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.00951 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00951/

## Key facts

- Cited by 18 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 76 of its 98 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Sep 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 76)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.10752/) (2021)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [Photorealistic Text-to-Image Diffusion Models with Deep Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.11487/) (2022)
- [LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08402/) (2022)
- [RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15818/) (2023)
- [Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.01691/) (2022)
- [FiLM: Visual Reasoning with a General Conditioning Layer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.07871/) (2017)
- [RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06817/) (2022)
- [Make-A-Video: Text-to-Video Generation without Text-Video Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14792/) (2022)
- [Dream to Control: Learning Behaviors by Latent Imagination](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01603/) (2019)
- [Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardware](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.13705/) (2023)
- [Ego4D: Around the World in 3,000 Hours of Egocentric Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.07058/) (2021)
- [World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.10122/) (2018)
- [Domain Randomization for Transferring Deep Neural Networks from Simulation to the Real World](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.06907/) (2017)
- [Mastering Atari, Go, Chess and Shogi by Planning with a Learned Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.08265/) (2019)
- [Gradient Surgery for Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.06782/) (2020)
- [LVIS: A Dataset for Large Vocabulary Instance Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.03195/) (2019)
- [Meta-World: A Benchmark and Evaluation for Multi-Task and Meta Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.10897/) (2019)
- [IMPALA: Scalable Distributed Deep-RL with Importance Weighted Actor-Learner Architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.01561/) (2018)
- [End-to-End Training of Deep Visuomotor Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.00702/) (2015)
- [AutoAugment: Learning Augmentation Policies from Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.09501/) (2018)
- [R3M: A Universal Visual Representation for Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12601/) (2022)
- [RLBench: The Robot Learning Benchmark & Learning Environment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.12271/) (2019)
- [CLIPort: What and Where Pathways for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.12098/) (2021)
- [Google Scanned Objects: A High-Quality Dataset of 3D Scanned Household Items](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.11918/) (2022)
- [Image Augmentation Is All You Need: Regularizing Deep Reinforcement Learning from Pixels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.13649/) (2020)
- [robosuite: A Modular Simulation Framework and Benchmark for Robot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.12293/) (2020)
- [Model-Based Reinforcement Learning for Atari](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.00374/) (2019)
- [VIMA: General Robot Manipulation with Multimodal Prompts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03094/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 18 of 18)

- [Gen2Act: Human Video Generation in Novel Scenarios enables Generalizable Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.16283/) (2024)
- [Shortcut Learning in Generalist Robot Policies: The Role of Dataset Diversity and Fragmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.06426/) (2025)
- [CAST: Counterfactual Labels Improve Instruction Following in Vision-Language-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.13446/) (2025)
- [VR-Robo: A Real-to-Sim-to-Real Framework for Visual Robot Navigation and Locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.01536/) (2025)
- [EMMA: Generalizing Real-World Robot Manipulation via Generative Visual Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.22407/) (2025)
- [RoboVIP: Multi-View Video Generation with Visual Identity Prompting Augments Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.05241/) (2026)
- [See Once, Then Act: Vision-Language-Action Model with Task Learning from One-Shot Video Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07582/) (2025)
- [D-CODA: Diffusion for Coordinated Dual-Arm Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.04860/) (2025)
- [CRAFT: Video Diffusion for Bimanual Robot Data Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.03552/) (2026)
- [Prepare Before You Act: Learning From Humans to Rearrange Initial States](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.18043/) (2025)
- [ROPA: Synthetic Robot Pose Generation for RGB-D Bimanual Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.19454/) (2025)
- [Fidelity-Aware Data Composition for Robust Robot Generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.24797/) (2025)
- [Improving Robotic Manipulation Robustness via NICE Scene Surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.22777/) (2025)
- [BioProVLA-Agent: An Affordable, Protocol-Driven, Vision-Enhanced VLA-Enabled Embodied Multi-Agent System with Closed-Loop-Capable Reasoning for Biological Laboratory Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.07306/) (2026)
- [Enhancing Deep Reinforcement Learning-based Robot Navigation Generalization through Scenario Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.01146/) (2025)
- [Task-Relevant and Irrelevant Region-Aware Augmentation for Generalizable Vision-Based Imitation Learning in Agricultural Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.04845/) (2026)
- [Grounded Semantic Re-Binding for Robust Instruction Generalization in Vision-Language-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.02497/) (2026)
- [InfiNoVA: Infinite Novel View Augmentation for Viewpoint Invariant Robot Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.27734/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Generalization to unseen real-world scenarios for robot manipulation requires exposure to diverse datasets during training. However, collecting large real-world datasets is intractable due to high operational costs. For robot learning to generalize despite these challenges, it is essential to leverage sources of data or priors beyond the robot's direct experience. In this work, we posit that image-text generative models, which are pre-trained on large corpora of web-scraped data, can serve as such a data source. These generative models encompass a broad range of real-world scenarios beyond a robot's direct experience and can synthesize novel synthetic experiences that expose robotic agents to additional world priors aiding real-world generalization at no extra cost. In particular, our approach leverages pre-trained generative models as an effective tool for data augmentation. We propose a generative augmentation framework for semantically controllable augmentations and rapidly multiplying robot datasets while inducing rich variations that enable real-world generalization. Based on diverse augmentations of robot data, we show how scalable robot manipulation policies can be trained and deployed both in simulation and in unseen real-world environments such as kitchens and table-tops. By demonstrating the effectiveness of image-text generative models in diverse real-world robotic applications, our generative augmentation framework provides a scalable and efficient path for boosting generalization in robot learning at no extra human cost.