# ROSA: Harnessing Robot States for Vision-Language and Action Alignment

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.13679 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.13679/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Embodied and 3D vision-language models, one of 16 directions in Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models.
- Builds on 43 of its 46 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Jun 2025.

## Placed in

- Multimodal LLMs / vision-language models / [Embodied and 3D vision-language models](https://mlsanity.com/mllm/embodied-and-3d-vision-language-models/)
- 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 43)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Visual Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08485/) (2023)
- [Qwen2.5 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.15115/) (2024)
- [Improved Baselines with Visual Instruction Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03744/) (2023)
- [Flamingo: a Visual Language Model for Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.14198/) (2022)
- [BLIP: Bootstrapping Language-Image Pre-training for Unified Vision-Language Understanding and Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.12086/) (2022)
- [RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15818/) (2023)
- [OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09246/) (2024)
- [LLaVA-OneVision: Easy Visual Task Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.03326/) (2024)
- [π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.24164/) (2024)
- [PaLM-E: An Embodied Multimodal Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.03378/) (2023)
- [RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scale](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.06817/) (2022)
- [Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.12213/) (2024)
- [Open X-Embodiment: Robotic Learning Datasets and RT-X Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.08864/) (2023)
- [RLBench: The Robot Learning Benchmark & Learning Environment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.12271/) (2019)
- [OpenFlamingo: An Open-Source Framework for Training Large Autoregressive Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.01390/) (2023)
- [Perceiver-Actor: A Multi-Task Transformer for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.05451/) (2022)
- [BC-Z: Zero-Shot Task Generalization with Robotic Imitation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.02005/) (2022)
- [CogACT: A Foundational Vision-Language-Action Model for Synergizing Cognition and Action in Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.19650/) (2024)
- [VIMA: General Robot Manipulation with Multimodal Prompts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03094/) (2022)
- [Vision-Language Foundation Models as Effective Robot Imitators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.01378/) (2023)
- [Robotic Control via Embodied Chain-of-Thought Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.08693/) (2024)
- [Prismatic VLMs: Investigating the Design Space of Visually-Conditioned Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.07865/) (2024)
- [TinyVLA: Towards Fast, Data-Efficient Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.12514/) (2024)
- [TraceVLA: Visual Trace Prompting Enhances Spatial-Temporal Awareness for Generalist Robotic Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.10345/) (2024)
- [RVT: Robotic View Transformer for 3D Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14896/) (2023)
- [RT-H: Action Hierarchies Using Language](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01823/) (2024)
- [RVT-2: Learning Precise Manipulation from Few Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.08545/) (2024)
- [Coarse-to-Fine Q-attention: Efficient Learning for Visual Robotic Manipulation via Discretisation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.12534/) (2021)
- [ChatVLA: Unified Multimodal Understanding and Robot Control with Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.14420/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [ManiAgent: An Agentic Framework for General Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.11660/) (2025)
- [IntentionVLA: Generalizable and Efficient Embodied Intention Reasoning for Human-Robot Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.07778/) (2025)
- [Human Centric General Physical Intelligence for Agile Manufacturing Automation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.11960/) (2025)
- [How Should Vision-Language-Action Models Use Proprioceptive State?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.03052/) (2026)
- [Grounded Semantic Re-Binding for Robust Instruction Generalization in Vision-Language-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.02497/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models have recently made significant advance in multi-task, end-to-end robotic control, due to the strong generalization capabilities of Vision-Language Models (VLMs). A fundamental challenge in developing such models is effectively aligning the vision-language space with the robotic action space. Existing approaches typically rely on directly fine-tuning VLMs using expert demonstrations. However, this strategy suffers from a spatio-temporal gap, resulting in considerable data inefficiency and heavy reliance on human labor. Spatially, VLMs operate within a high-level semantic space, whereas robotic actions are grounded in low-level 3D physical space; temporally, VLMs primarily interpret the present, while VLA models anticipate future actions. To overcome these challenges, we propose a novel training paradigm, ROSA, which leverages robot state estimation to improve alignment between vision-language and action spaces. By integrating robot state estimation data obtained via an automated process, ROSA enables the VLA model to gain enhanced spatial understanding and self-awareness, thereby boosting performance and generalization. Extensive experiments in both simulated and real-world environments demonstrate the effectiveness of ROSA, particularly in low-data regimes.