CollabVLA: Self-Reflective Vision-Language-Action Model Dreaming Together with Human
On the map: Vision-language-action models → Generalist VLA models and benchmarks
Abstract (arXiv)
In this work, we present CollabVLA, a self-reflective vision-language-action framework that transforms a standard visuomotor policy into a collaborative assistant. CollabVLA tackles key limitations of prior VLAs, including domain overfitting, non-interpretable reasoning, and the high latency of auxiliary generative models, by integrating VLM-based reflective reasoning with diffusion-based action generation under a mixture-of-experts design. Through a two-stage training recipe of action grounding and reflection tuning, it supports explicit self-reflection and proactively solicits human guidance when confronted with uncertainty or repeated failure. It cuts normalized Time by ~2x and Dream counts by ~4x vs. generative agents, achieving higher success rates, improved interpretability, and balanced low latency compared with existing methods. This work takes a pioneering step toward shifting VLAs from opaque controllers to genuinely assistive agents capable of reasoning, acting, and collaborating with humans.
Key facts. Cited by 6 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 39 of its 40 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 18 Sep 2025.
Builds on
39 of 40 references.
Closest ancestors · 6
Same direction, newest first
- 2025villa-X: Enhancing Latent Action Modeling in Vision-Language-Action Models31 Jul
- 2025Interleave-VLA: Enhancing Robot Manipulation with Interleaved Image-Text Instructions4 May
- 2024CogACT: A Foundational Vision-Language-Action Model for Synergizing Cognition and Action in Robotic Manipulation29 Nov
- 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Control31 Oct
- 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Model13 Jun
- 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Control28 Jul
Other references · 33
- 2021LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Modelscited by 14,380
- 2022Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Modelscited by 12,459
- 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,695
- 2023Judging LLM-as-a-Judge with MT-Bench and Chatbot Arenacited by 8,626
- 2022Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformerscited by 6,054
- 2022Flamingo: a Visual Language Model for Few-Shot Learningcited by 4,386
- 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,276
- 2024Qwen2-VL: Enhancing Vision-Language Model's Perception of the World at Any Resolutioncited by 4,234
- 2023Sigmoid Loss for Language Image Pre-Trainingcited by 3,109
- 2024LLaVA-OneVision: Easy Visual Task Transfercited by 2,719
- 2017FiLM: Visual Reasoning with a General Conditioning Layercited by 2,333
- 2022RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scalecited by 2,061
21 more
- 2024Expanding Performance Boundaries of Open-Source Multimodal Models with Model, Data, and Test-Time Scalingcited by 1,599
- 2023LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learningcited by 1,410
- 2024DROID: A Large-Scale In-The-Wild Robot Manipulation Datasetcited by 852
- 2023BridgeData V2: A Dataset for Robot Learning at Scalecited by 657
- 2024Evaluating Real-World Robot Manipulation Policies in Simulationcited by 495
- 2025CoT-VLA: Visual Chain-of-Thought Reasoning for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 451
- 2025UniVLA: Learning to Act Anywhere with Task-centric Latent Actionscited by 410
- 2025AgiBot World Colosseo: A Large-scale Manipulation Platform for Scalable and Intelligent Embodied Systemscited by 405
- 2023Vision-Language Foundation Models as Effective Robot Imitatorscited by 349
- 2024Robotic Control via Embodied Chain-of-Thought Reasoningcited by 346
- 2023Robots That Ask For Help: Uncertainty Alignment for Large Language Model Plannerscited by 308
- 2024ManiSkill3: GPU Parallelized Robotics Simulation and Rendering for Generalizable Embodied AIcited by 229
- 2024RoboDreamer: Learning Compositional World Models for Robot Imaginationcited by 195
- 2024Multimodal Diffusion Transformer: Learning Versatile Behavior from Multimodal Goalscited by 134
- 2025ChatVLA: Unified Multimodal Understanding and Robot Control with Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 113
- 2025InstructVLA: Vision-Language-Action Instruction Tuning from Understanding to Manipulationcited by 72
- 2024Diffusion-VLA: Generalizable and Interpretable Robot Foundation Model via Self-Generated Reasoningcited by 57
- 2025CLAM: Continuous Latent Action Models for Robot Learning from Unlabeled Demonstrationscited by 41
- 2024GR-MG: Leveraging Partially Annotated Data via Multi-Modal Goal-Conditioned Policycited by 39
- 2024Introspective Planning: Aligning Robots' Uncertainty with Inherent Task Ambiguitycited by 27
- 2024AssistantX: An LLM-Powered Proactive Assistant in Collaborative Human-Populated Environmentcited by 3
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2025: 2; 2026: 4.
6 papers.
- 2025A Survey on Efficient Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 34
- 2025AsyncVLA: Asynchronous Flow Matching for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 17
- 2026CycleVLA: Proactive Self-Correcting Vision-Language-Action Models via Subtask Backtracking and Minimum Bayes Risk Decodingcited by 14
- 2026PhysReflect-VLA: Physical Feasibility and Self-Reflective Regulation for Reliable Vision-Language-Action Policiescited by 1
- 2026E-TTS: A New Embodied Test-Time Scaling Framework for Robotic Manipulationcited by 1
- 2026When to Rethink: Learning Multi-Perspective Self-Verification for Vision-Language Modelscited by 0
- 2026When to Rethink: Learning Multi-Perspective Self-Verification for Vision-Language Models4 Oct 2026
- 2026E-TTS: A New Embodied Test-Time Scaling Framework for Robotic Manipulation25 Jun 2026
- 2026PhysReflect-VLA: Physical Feasibility and Self-Reflective Regulation for Reliable Vision-Language-Action Policies25 Jun 2026
- 2026CycleVLA: Proactive Self-Correcting Vision-Language-Action Models via Subtask Backtracking and Minimum Bayes Risk Decoding5 Jan 2026
- 2025AsyncVLA: Asynchronous Flow Matching for Vision-Language-Action Models18 Nov 2025
- 2025A Survey on Efficient Vision-Language-Action Models27 Oct 2025
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2025MergeVLA: Cross-Skill Model Merging Toward a Generalist Vision-Language-Action Agent
- 2025An Anatomy of Vision-Language-Action Models: From Modules to Milestones and Challenges
- 2026StarVLA: A Lego-like Codebase for Vision-Language-Action Model Developing
- 2025Efficient Vision-Language-Action Models for Embodied Manipulation: A Systematic Survey
- 2026EmbodiedSkills: A Unified Framework for Orchestrating, Training, and Deploying VLA Agents
- 2026DREAMSTEER: Latent World Models Can Steer VLA Policies During Deployment Without Any Finetuning
- 2026Action Draft and Verify: A Self-Verifying Framework for Vision-Language-Action Model
- 2026Goal2Skill: Long-Horizon Manipulation with Adaptive Planning and Reflection