mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

A Survey of Large Language Model-Powered Spatial Intelligence Across Scales: Advances in Embodied Agents, Smart Cities, and Earth Science

arXiv 2504.09848 ↗First posted 14 Apr 2025cs.AI cs.CLcited by 12

On the map: World models → World models for language agents

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Abstract (arXiv)

Over the past year, the development of large language models (LLMs) has brought spatial intelligence into focus, with much attention on vision-based embodied intelligence. However, spatial intelligence spans a broader range of disciplines and scales, from navigation and urban planning to remote sensing and earth science. What are the differences and connections between spatial intelligence across these fields? In this paper, we first review human spatial cognition and its implications for spatial intelligence in LLMs. We then examine spatial memory, knowledge representations, and abstract reasoning in LLMs, highlighting their roles and connections. Finally, we analyze spatial intelligence across scales -- from embodied to urban and global levels -- following a framework that progresses from spatial memory and understanding to spatial reasoning and intelligence. Through this survey, we aim to provide insights into interdisciplinary spatial intelligence research and inspire future studies.

Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in World models for language agents, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 60 of its 89 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 14 Apr 2025.

Builds on

60 of 89 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024Understanding World or Predicting Future? A Comprehensive Survey of World Models21 Nov
  2. 2024Large Language Models are Geographically Biased5 Feb

Other references · 58

  1. 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Controlcited by 3,080
  2. 2019Language Models as Knowledge Bases?cited by 1,936
  3. 2023A Survey on Hallucination in Large Language Models: Principles, Taxonomy, Challenges, and Open Questionscited by 1,601
  4. 2023VoxPoser: Composable 3D Value Maps for Robotic Manipulation with Language Modelscited by 750
  5. 2020How Much Knowledge Can You Pack Into the Parameters of a Language Model?cited by 719
  6. 2024SpatialVLM: Endowing Vision-Language Models with Spatial Reasoning Capabilitiescited by 706
  7. 2024Thinking in Space: How Multimodal Large Language Models See, Remember, and Recall Spacescited by 611
  8. 2022VIMA: General Robot Manipulation with Multimodal Promptscited by 407
  9. 2023GeoChat: Grounded Large Vision-Language Model for Remote Sensingcited by 328
  10. 2021Skillful Precipitation Nowcasting using Deep Generative Models of Radarcited by 311
  11. 2023NavGPT: Explicit Reasoning in Vision-and-Language Navigation with Large Language Modelscited by 280
  12. 2024Navigation World Modelscited by 272
38 more
  1. 2023FuXi: A cascade machine learning forecasting system for 15-day global weather forecastcited by 241
  2. 2022Factuality Enhanced Language Models for Open-Ended Text Generationcited by 202
  3. 2024Scene-LLM: Extending Language Model for 3D Visual Understanding and Reasoningcited by 175
  4. 2021Embodied Intelligence via Learning and Evolutioncited by 163
  5. 2024SpatialBot: Precise Spatial Understanding with Vision Language Modelscited by 152
  6. 2023EmbodiedScan: A Holistic Multi-Modal 3D Perception Suite Towards Embodied AIcited by 147
  7. 2024Video-3D LLM: Learning Position-Aware Video Representation for 3D Scene Understandingcited by 138
  8. 2023GeomVerse: A Systematic Evaluation of Large Models for Geometric Reasoningcited by 108
  9. 2024Large Language Models as Urban Residents: An LLM Agent Framework for Personal Mobility Generationcited by 100
  10. 2024NavGPT-2: Unleashing Navigational Reasoning Capability for Large Vision-Language Modelscited by 98
  11. 2024Beyond A*: Better Planning with Transformers via Search Dynamics Bootstrappingcited by 90
  12. 2023UrbanCLIP: Learning Text-enhanced Urban Region Profiling with Contrastive Language-Image Pretraining from the Webcited by 78
  13. 2023Evaluating Cognitive Maps and Planning in Large Language Models with CogEvalcited by 77
  14. 20243D-Mem: 3D Scene Memory for Embodied Exploration and Reasoningcited by 75
  15. 2023VELMA: Verbalization Embodiment of LLM Agents for Vision and Language Navigation in Street Viewcited by 67
  16. 2023MP5: A Multi-modal Open-ended Embodied System in Minecraft via Active Perceptioncited by 67
  17. 2023Evaluating Spatial Understanding of Large Language Modelscited by 66
  18. 2023GeoLLM: Extracting Geospatial Knowledge from Large Language Modelscited by 64
  19. 2021Relating transformers to models and neural representations of the hippocampal formationcited by 62
  20. 2024GraphInstruct: Empowering Large Language Models with Graph Understanding and Reasoning Capabilitycited by 58
  21. 2023PIGEON: Predicting Image Geolocationscited by 56
  22. 2024GeoEval: Benchmark for Evaluating LLMs and Multi-Modal Models on Geometry Problem-Solvingcited by 45
  23. 2023GeoGPT: Understanding and Processing Geospatial Tasks through An Autonomous GPTcited by 41
  24. 2024Large Language Model for Participatory Urban Planningcited by 40
  25. 2023Sphere2Vec: A General-Purpose Location Representation Learning over a Spherical Surface for Large-Scale Geospatial Predictionscited by 39
  26. 2023Charting New Territories: Exploring the Geographic and Geospatial Capabilities of Multimodal LLMscited by 34
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  28. 2024TorchSpatial: A Location Encoding Framework and Benchmark for Spatial Representation Learningcited by 31
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  30. 2024CityGPT: Empowering Urban Spatial Cognition of Large Language Modelscited by 30
  31. 2024Advancing Spatial Reasoning in Large Language Models: An In-Depth Evaluation and Enhancement Using the StepGame Benchmarkcited by 27
  32. 2024GeoReasoner: Geo-localization with Reasoning in Street Views using a Large Vision-Language Modelcited by 27
  33. 2024Perceive, Reflect, and Plan: Designing LLM Agent for Goal-Directed City Navigation without Instructionscited by 25
  34. 2021Geographic Question Answering: Challenges, Uniqueness, Classification, and Future Directionscited by 24
  35. 2025Defining and Evaluating Visual Language Models' Basic Spatial Abilities: A Perspective from Psychometricscited by 23
  36. 2024Mobility-LLM: Learning Visiting Intentions and Travel Preferences from Human Mobility Data with Large Language Modelscited by 22
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  38. 2024TopV-Nav: Unlocking the Top-View Spatial Reasoning Potential of MLLM for Zero-shot Object Navigationcited by 15

50 most cited of 58 All 58 (JSON)

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 4; 2026: 8.

12 papers.

  1. 2026Think3D: Thinking with Space for Spatial Reasoningcited by 24
  2. 2025UrbanLLaVA: A Multi-modal Large Language Model for Urban Intelligence with Spatial Reasoning and Understandingcited by 15
  3. 2026Do MLLMs Really Understand Space? A Mathematical Reasoning Evaluationcited by 6
  4. 2026Holi-Spatial: Evolving Video Streams into Holistic 3D Spatial Intelligencecited by 6
  5. 2025VCRBench: Exploring Long-form Causal Reasoning Capabilities of Large Video Language Modelscited by 5
  6. 2025Mem4Nav: Boosting Vision-and-Language Navigation in Urban Environments with a Hierarchical Spatial-Cognition Long-Short Memory Systemcited by 3
  7. 2026MosaicThinker: On-Device Visual Spatial Reasoning for Embodied AI via Iterative Construction of Space Representationcited by 2
  8. 2025GTR-Bench: Evaluating Geo-Temporal Reasoning in Vision-Language Modelscited by 1
  9. 2026How Do LLMs and VLMs Understand Viewpoint Rotation Without Vision? An Interpretability Studycited by 1
  10. 2026Towards Camera-Robust 3D Localization: Equation-Anchored Tool-Use for MLLMscited by 1
  11. 2026How Far Are Large Multimodal Models from Human-Level Spatial Action? A Benchmark for Goal-Oriented Embodied Navigation in Urban Airspacecited by 0
  12. 2026Towards a Data-Centric Understanding of Spatial Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Modelscited by 0

Similar, not cited

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  1. 2025Spatial Reasoning in Multimodal Large Language Models: A Survey of Tasks, Benchmarks and Methods
  2. 2025SpatialBench: Benchmarking Multimodal Large Language Models for Spatial Cognition
  3. 2026From Human Cognition to Neural Activations: Probing the Computational Primitives of Spatial Reasoning in LLMs
  4. 2025Imagine in Space: Exploring the Frontier of Spatial Intelligence and Reasoning Efficiency in Vision Language Models
  5. 2025Scaling and Beyond: Advancing Spatial Reasoning in MLLMs Requires New Recipes
  6. 2026KilometerVision: A New Frontier for Large-Scale Spatial Intelligence in VLMs
  7. 2026From Perception to Action: Spatial AI Agents and World Models
  8. 202511Plus-Bench: Demystifying Multimodal LLM Spatial Reasoning with Cognitive-Inspired Analysis