mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

TGRPO :Fine-tuning Vision-Language-Action Model via Trajectory-wise Group Relative Policy Optimization

arXiv 2506.08440 ↗First posted 10 Jun 2025cs.RO cs.AIcited by 47

On the map: Vision-language-action models → Reinforcement learning and post-training

Abstract (arXiv)

Visual-Language-Action (VLA) models have demonstrated strong cross-scenario generalization capabilities in various robotic tasks through large-scale pre-training and task-specific fine-tuning. However, their training paradigm mainly relies on manually collected successful demonstrations, making it difficult to adapt to complex environments when encountering out-of-distribution (OOD) scenarios or execution biases. While Reinforcement Learning (RL) provides a closed-loop optimization framework via active trial-and-error mechanism, it suffers from sparse rewards, high variance, and unstable optimization in long-horizon robotic tasks. To address these limitations, we propose Trajectory-based Group Relative Policy Optimization (TGRPO), an online RL-based training framework for VLA models. TGRPO leverages task analysis generated by a large language model to automatically construct dense reward functions, providing fine-grained feedback to accelerate convergence and improve credit assignment. The core of our method is a group-based strategy that samples and normalizes multiple trajectories in parallel, reducing variance through relative comparison. By integrating trajectory-level and step-level advantage estimation, TGRPO captures both global and local optimization signals without relying on a value network. Experiments on four task categories of the LIBERO benchmark demonstrate that TGRPO achieves an average success rate of 80.7%, which is 4.2% higher than that of Supervised Fine-Tuning (SFT) and outperforms other representative RL-based post-training methods.

Key facts. Cited by 47 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning and post-training, one of 13 directions in Vision-language-action models. Builds on 42 of its 50 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 10 Jun 2025.

Builds on

42 of 50 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025ConRFT: A Reinforced Fine-tuning Method for VLA Models via Consistency Policy8 Feb
  2. 2025Improving Vision-Language-Action Model with Online Reinforcement Learning28 Jan
  3. 2024GRAPE: Generalizing Robot Policy via Preference Alignment28 Nov

Other references · 39

  1. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 14,441
  2. 2021LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Modelscited by 14,084
  3. 2023Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Modelscited by 12,865
  4. 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 8,851
  5. 2023Direct Preference Optimization: Your Language Model is Secretly a Reward Modelcited by 7,916
  6. 2023DINOv2: Learning Robust Visual Features without Supervisioncited by 7,764
  7. 2025DeepSeek-R1: Incentivizing Reasoning Capability in LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 6,146
  8. 2023Sigmoid Loss for Language Image Pre-Trainingcited by 3,048
  9. 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Controlcited by 2,993
  10. 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 2,777
  11. 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusioncited by 2,730
  12. 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Controlcited by 2,297
27 more
  1. 2016Asynchronous Methods for Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 2,218
  2. 2023PaLM-E: An Embodied Multimodal Language Modelcited by 2,037
  3. 2022RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scalecited by 2,007
  4. 2015High-Dimensional Continuous Control Using Generalized Advantage Estimationcited by 1,916
  5. 2023LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learningcited by 1,338
  6. 2018Soft Actor-Critic Algorithms and Applicationscited by 1,179
  7. 2025Fine-Tuning Vision-Language-Action Models: Optimizing Speed and Successcited by 844
  8. 2024DROID: A Large-Scale In-The-Wild Robot Manipulation Datasetcited by 801
  9. 2023VoxPoser: Composable 3D Value Maps for Robotic Manipulation with Language Modelscited by 733
  10. 2024PaliGemma: A versatile 3B VLM for transfercited by 679
  11. 2024RDT-1B: a Diffusion Foundation Model for Bimanual Manipulationcited by 670
  12. 2025SFT Memorizes, RL Generalizes: A Comparative Study of Foundation Model Post-trainingcited by 655
  13. 2025SmolVLA: A Vision-Language-Action Model for Affordable and Efficient Roboticscited by 507
  14. 2025SpatialVLA: Exploring Spatial Representations for Visual-Language-Action Modelcited by 502
  15. 2024CogACT: A Foundational Vision-Language-Action Model for Synergizing Cognition and Action in Robotic Manipulationcited by 411
  16. 2025AgiBot World Colosseo: A Large-scale Manipulation Platform for Scalable and Intelligent Embodied Systemscited by 390
  17. 2025UniVLA: Learning to Act Anywhere with Task-centric Latent Actionscited by 386
  18. 2024ReKep: Spatio-Temporal Reasoning of Relational Keypoint Constraints for Robotic Manipulationcited by 305
  19. 2025Hi Robot: Open-Ended Instruction Following with Hierarchical Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 216
  20. 2023RH20T: A Comprehensive Robotic Dataset for Learning Diverse Skills in One-Shotcited by 173
  21. 2024Precise and Dexterous Robotic Manipulation via Human-in-the-Loop Reinforcement Learningcited by 153
  22. 2025OmniManip: Towards General Robotic Manipulation via Object-Centric Interaction Primitives as Spatial Constraintscited by 58
  23. 2025BitVLA: 1-bit Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotics Manipulationcited by 42
  24. 2023GAMMA: Graspability-Aware Mobile MAnipulation Policy Learning based on Online Grasping Pose Fusioncited by 21
  25. 2024MENTOR: Mixture-of-Experts Network with Task-Oriented Perturbation for Visual Reinforcement Learningcited by 20
  26. 2024Waypoint-Based Reinforcement Learning for Robot Manipulation Taskscited by 7
  27. 2022Reinforcement Learning-Enhanced Control Barrier Functions for Robot Manipulatorscited by 2

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2025: 16; 2026: 31.

47 papers.

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  1. 2025The Landscape of Agentic Reinforcement Learning for LLMs: A Surveycited by 195
  2. 2025LIBERO-PRO: Towards Robust and Fair Evaluation of Vision-Language-Action Models Beyond Memorizationcited by 166
  3. 2025SimpleVLA-RL: Scaling VLA Training via Reinforcement Learningcited by 141
  4. 2025Large VLM-based Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulation: A Surveycited by 66
  5. 2025VLA-RFT: Vision-Language-Action Reinforcement Fine-tuning with Verified Rewards in World Simulatorscited by 65
  6. 2026UI-Venus-1.5 Technical Reportcited by 39
  7. 2026RISE: Self-Improving Robot Policy with Compositional World Modelcited by 39
  8. 2025Robo-Dopamine: General Process Reward Modeling for High-Precision Robotic Manipulationcited by 37
  9. 2025SRPO: Self-Referential Policy Optimization for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 25
  10. 2025Parallels Between VLA Model Post-Training and Human Motor Learning: Progress, Challenges, and Trendscited by 17
  11. 2025RobustVLA: Robustness-Aware Reinforcement Post-Training for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 16
  12. 2026On-the-Fly VLA Adaptation via Test-Time Reinforcement Learningcited by 14
35 more
  1. 2026VLANeXt: Recipes for Building Strong VLA Modelscited by 12
  2. 2026chi0: Resource-Aware Robust Manipulation via Taming Distributional Inconsistenciescited by 11
  3. 2026Towards Long-Lived Robots: Continual Learning VLA Models via Reinforcement Fine-Tuningcited by 11
  4. 2025PhysBrain: Human Egocentric Data as a Bridge from Vision Language Models to Physical Intelligencecited by 10
  5. 2025DEAS: DEtached value learning with Action Sequence for Scalable Offline RLcited by 9
  6. 2026RoboStereo: Dual-Tower 4D Embodied World Models for Unified Policy Optimizationcited by 9
  7. 2025Reinforcement Learning for Large Model: A Surveycited by 8
  8. 2026ProgressVLA: Progress-Guided Diffusion Policy for Vision-Language Robotic Manipulationcited by 8
  9. 2025Survey of Vision-Language-Action Models for Embodied Manipulationcited by 7
  10. 2026PRPO: Aligning Process Reward with Outcome Reward in Policy Optimizationcited by 7
  11. 2026LaST-R1: Reinforcing Robotic Manipulation via Adaptive Physical Latent Reasoningcited by 7
  12. 2026OmniGuide: Universal Guidance Fields for Enhancing Generalist Robot Policiescited by 6
  13. 2026TwinRL: Digital Twin-Driven Reinforcement Learning for Real-World Robotic Manipulationcited by 5
  14. 2026E-VLA: Event-Augmented Vision-Language-Action Model for Dark and Blurred Scenescited by 4
  15. 2025Discover, Learn, and Reinforce: Scaling Vision-Language-Action Pretraining with Diverse RL-Generated Trajectoriescited by 3
  16. 2025Beyond Success: Refining Elegant Robot Manipulation from Mixed-Quality Data via Just-in-Time Interventioncited by 2
  17. 2026DyGRO-VLA: Cross-Task Scaling of Vision-Language-Action Models via Dynamic Grouped Residual Optimizationcited by 2
  18. 2026ExToken: Structured Exploration for Efficient Vision-Language-Action Reinforcement Fine-tuningcited by 2
  19. 2026Prism-GRPO: Faster VLA Policy Optimization via Splitting Same-outcome Groupscited by 2
  20. 2026Towards Precise Intent-Aligned VLA Aerial Navigation via Expert-Guided GRPOcited by 1
  21. 2026See Less, Specify More: Visual Evidence Budgets for Generalizable VLAscited by 1
  22. 2026dVLA-RL: Reinforcement Learning over Denoising Trajectories for Discrete Diffusion Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 1
  23. 2026Temporal GRPO: Beyond Trajectory-Level Credit in Vision-Language-Action Reinforcement Learningcited by 1
  24. 2026HarnessPAI: An Evolving Harness for Physical AIcited by 1
  25. 2025Robust Object Detection for Autonomous Driving via Curriculum-Guided Group Relative Policy Optimizationcited by 0
  26. 2026Boosting Vision-Language-Action Finetuning with Feasible Action Neighborhood Priorcited by 0
  27. 2026Test-Time Perturbation Learning with Delayed Feedback for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 0
  28. 2026Learn Where Outcomes Diverge: Efficient VLA RL via Probabilistic Chunk Maskingcited by 0
  29. 2026PAPO-VLA: Planning-Aware Policy Optimization for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 0
  30. 2026Beyond Flat Policies: Hierarchical Post-Training for Embodied Agents in Robotic Manipulationcited by 0
  31. 2026PACE: Phase-Progress-Aware Credit for Long-Horizon Embodied Manipulationcited by 0
  32. 2026Dissecting Advantage-Guided Post-Training for Vision-Language-Action Policiescited by 0
  33. 2026PF-RL: Progress Field Reinforcement Learning via Goal-Conditioned Value Geometry for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 0
  34. 2026StructRL: Online Structured Reinforcement Learning for Long-Horizon Vision-Language-Action Taskscited by 0
  35. 2026Cooperative Multi-Agent Vision-Language-Action Models via Reinforced Fine Tuningcited by 0

Similar, not cited

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  1. 2026Z-1: Efficient Reinforcement Learning for Vision-Language-Action Models
  2. 2025WMPO: World Model-based Policy Optimization for Vision-Language-Action Models
  3. 2025STARE-VLA: Progressive Stage-Aware Reinforcement for Fine-Tuning Vision-Language-Action Models
  4. 2026S-GRPO: Unified Post-Training for Large Vision-Language Models
  5. 2026GROW: Aligning GRPO with State-Action Modeling for Open-World VLM Agents
  6. 2025VLA-RL: Towards Masterful and General Robotic Manipulation with Scalable Reinforcement Learning
  7. 2026IG-RFT: An Interaction-Guided RL Framework for VLA Models in Long-Horizon Robotic Manipulation
  8. 2026Many Ways to Succeed: Diversity-Driven RL Fine-Tuning for VLA Generalization