# Uni-NaVid: A Video-based Vision-Language-Action Model for Unifying Embodied Navigation Tasks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.06224 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06224/

## Key facts

- Cited by 156 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Generalist VLA models and benchmarks, one of 13 directions in Vision-language-action models.
- Builds on 33 of its 125 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 9 Dec 2024.

## Placed in

- Vision-language-action models / [Generalist VLA models and benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/vla/generalist-vla-models-and-benchmarks/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 33)

- [Grounding DINO: Marrying DINO with Grounded Pre-Training for Open-Set Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.05499/) (2023)
- [RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15818/) (2023)
- [Video-LLaMA: An Instruction-tuned Audio-Visual Language Model for Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.02858/) (2023)
- [Video-LLaVA: Learning United Visual Representation by Alignment Before Projection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.10122/) (2023)
- [Video-ChatGPT: Towards Detailed Video Understanding via Large Vision and Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05424/) (2023)
- [VideoChat: Chat-Centric Video Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.06355/) (2023)
- [EVA-CLIP: Improved Training Techniques for CLIP at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.15389/) (2023)
- [MiniGPT-v2: large language model as a unified interface for vision-language multi-task learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.09478/) (2023)
- [Habitat-Matterport 3D Dataset (HM3D): 1000 Large-scale 3D Environments for Embodied AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.08238/) (2021)
- [On Evaluation of Embodied Navigation Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.06757/) (2018)
- [LLaMA-VID: An Image is Worth 2 Tokens in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.17043/) (2023)
- [Visual Language Maps for Robot Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.05714/) (2022)
- [DiffusionDrive: Truncated Diffusion Model for End-to-End Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.15139/) (2024)
- [VADv2: End-to-End Vectorized Autonomous Driving via Probabilistic Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.13243/) (2024)
- [NavGPT: Explicit Reasoning in Vision-and-Language Navigation with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16986/) (2023)
- [Habitat 3.0: A Co-Habitat for Humans, Avatars and Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.13724/) (2023)
- [Aligning Cyber Space with Physical World: A Comprehensive Survey on Embodied AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.06886/) (2024)
- [ETPNav: Evolving Topological Planning for Vision-Language Navigation in Continuous Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03047/) (2023)
- [InstructNav: Zero-shot System for Generic Instruction Navigation in Unexplored Environment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.04882/) (2024)
- [Towards Learning a Generalist Model for Embodied Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.02010/) (2023)
- [Discuss Before Moving: Visual Language Navigation via Multi-expert Discussions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.11382/) (2023)
- [Language-Aligned Waypoint (LAW) Supervision for Vision-and-Language Navigation in Continuous Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.15207/) (2021)
- [Weakly-Supervised Multi-Granularity Map Learning for Vision-and-Language Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.07506/) (2022)
- [HM3D-OVON: A Dataset and Benchmark for Open-Vocabulary Object Goal Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.14296/) (2024)
- [OVRL-V2: A simple state-of-art baseline for ImageNav and ObjectNav](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.07798/) (2023)
- [OpenFMNav: Towards Open-Set Zero-Shot Object Navigation via Vision-Language Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10670/) (2024)
- [A2Nav: Action-Aware Zero-Shot Robot Navigation by Exploiting Vision-and-Language Ability of Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.07997/) (2023)
- [PoliFormer: Scaling On-Policy RL with Transformers Results in Masterful Navigators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.20083/) (2024)
- [Principles and Guidelines for Evaluating Social Robot Navigation Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.16740/) (2023)
- [CLIP-Nav: Using CLIP for Zero-Shot Vision-and-Language Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.16649/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 156)

- [DreamVLA: A Vision-Language-Action Model Dreamed with Comprehensive World Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04447/) (2025)
- [StreamVLN: Streaming Vision-and-Language Navigation via SlowFast Context Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.05240/) (2025)
- [VLA-JEPA: Enhancing Vision-Language-Action Model with Latent World Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.10098/) (2026)
- [JanusVLN: Decoupling Semantics and Spatiality with Dual Implicit Memory for Vision-Language Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.22548/) (2025)
- [VLN-R1: Vision-Language Navigation via Reinforcement Fine-Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.17221/) (2025)
- [Move to Understand a 3D Scene: Bridging Visual Grounding and Exploration for Efficient and Versatile Embodied Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04047/) (2025)
- [NavDP: Learning Sim-to-Real Navigation Diffusion Policy with Privileged Information Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.08712/) (2025)
- [ChatVLA-2: Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Embodied Reasoning from Pretrained Knowledge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.21906/) (2025)
- [Pure Vision Language Action (VLA) Models: A Comprehensive Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.19012/) (2025)
- [TrackVLA: Embodied Visual Tracking in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.23189/) (2025)
- [SoFar: Language-Grounded Orientation Bridges Spatial Reasoning and Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13143/) (2025)
- [Embodied-Reasoner: Synergizing Visual Search, Reasoning, and Action for Embodied Interactive Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21696/) (2025)
- [Qwen-VLA: Unifying Vision-Language-Action Modeling across Tasks, Environments, and Robot Embodiments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.30280/) (2026)
- [Vision Language Action Models in Robotic Manipulation: A Systematic Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.10672/) (2025)
- [ContextVLA: Vision-Language-Action Model with Amortized Multi-Frame Context](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.04246/) (2025)
- [OctoNav: Towards Generalist Embodied Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.09839/) (2025)
- [Mem2Ego: Empowering Vision-Language Models with Global-to-Ego Memory for Long-Horizon Embodied Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.14254/) (2025)
- [Dynam3D: Dynamic Layered 3D Tokens Empower VLM for Vision-and-Language Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.11383/) (2025)
- [VLA-AN: An Efficient and Onboard Vision-Language-Action Framework for Aerial Navigation in Complex Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.15258/) (2025)
- [VLNVerse: A Benchmark for Vision-Language Navigation with Versatile, Embodied, Realistic Simulation and Evaluation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.19021/) (2025)
- [Cross from Left to Right Brain: Adaptive Text Dreamer for Vision-and-Language Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.20897/) (2025)
- [DreamNav: A Trajectory-Based Imaginative Framework for Zero-Shot Vision-and-Language Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.11197/) (2025)
- [TrackVLA++: Unleashing Reasoning and Memory Capabilities in VLA Models for Embodied Visual Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.07134/) (2025)
- [AstraNav-World: World Model for Foresight Control and Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.21714/) (2025)
- [NavForesee: A Unified Vision-Language World Model for Hierarchical Planning and Dual-Horizon Navigation Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.01550/) (2025)
- [MobileVLA-R1: Reinforcing Vision-Language-Action for Mobile Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.17889/) (2025)
- [ActiveVLN: Towards Active Exploration via Multi-Turn RL in Vision-and-Language Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.12618/) (2025)
- [NaviTrace: Evaluating Embodied Navigation of Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.26909/) (2025)
- [MSGNav: Unleashing the Power of Multi-modal 3D Scene Graph for Zero-Shot Embodied Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.10376/) (2025)
- [Qwen-RobotNav Technical Report: A Scalable Navigation Model Designed for an Agentic Navigation System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.18112/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

A practical navigation agent must be capable of handling a wide range of interaction demands, such as following instructions, searching objects, answering questions, tracking people, and more. Existing models for embodied navigation fall short of serving as practical generalists in the real world, as they are often constrained by specific task configurations or pre-defined maps with discretized waypoints. In this work, we present Uni-NaVid, the first video-based vision-language-action (VLA) model designed to unify diverse embodied navigation tasks and enable seamless navigation for mixed long-horizon tasks in unseen real-world environments. Uni-NaVid achieves this by harmonizing the input and output data configurations for all commonly used embodied navigation tasks and thereby integrating all tasks in one model. For training Uni-NaVid, we collect 3.6 million navigation data samples in total from four essential navigation sub-tasks and foster synergy in learning across them. Extensive experiments on comprehensive navigation benchmarks clearly demonstrate the advantages of unification modeling in Uni-NaVid and show it achieves state-of-the-art performance. Additionally, real-world experiments confirm the model's effectiveness and efficiency, shedding light on its strong generalizability.