mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Discover, Learn, and Reinforce: Scaling Vision-Language-Action Pretraining with Diverse RL-Generated Trajectories

arXiv 2511.19528 ↗First posted 24 Nov 2025cs.RO cs.AIcited by 3

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

Abstract (arXiv)

Scaling vision-language-action (VLA) model pre-training requires large volumes of diverse, high-quality manipulation trajectories. Most current data is obtained via human teleoperation, which is expensive and difficult to scale. Reinforcement learning (RL) methods learn useful skills through autonomous exploration, making them a viable approach for generating data. However, standard RL training collapses to a narrow execution pattern, limiting its utility for large-scale pre-training. We propose Discover, Lea rn and Reinforce (DLR), an information-theoretic pattern discovery framework that generates multiple distinct, high-success behavioral patterns for VLA pretraining. Empirically, DLR generates a markedly more diverse trajectory corpus on LIBERO. Specifically, it learns multiple distinct, high-success strategies for the same task where standard RL discovers only one, and hence it covers substantially broader regions of the state-action space. When adapted to unseen downstream task suites, VLA models pretrained on our diverse RL data surpass counterparts trained on equal-sized standard RL datasets. Moreover, DLR exhibits positive data-scaling behavior that single-pattern RL lacks. These results position multi-pattern RL as a practical, scalable data engine for embodied foundation models.

Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning and post-training, one of 13 directions in Vision-language-action models. Builds on 63 of its 71 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 24 Nov 2025.

Builds on

63 of 71 references.

Closest ancestors · 12

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025RLinf-VLA: A Unified and Efficient Framework for Reinforcement Learning of Vision-Language-Action Models8 Oct
  2. 2025Beyond Human Demonstrations: Diffusion-Based Reinforcement Learning to Generate Data for VLA Training24 Sep
  3. 2025SimpleVLA-RL: Scaling VLA Training via Reinforcement Learning11 Sep
  4. 2025CO-RFT: Efficient Fine-Tuning of Vision-Language-Action Models through Chunked Offline Reinforcement Learning4 Aug
  5. 2025TGRPO :Fine-tuning Vision-Language-Action Model via Trajectory-wise Group Relative Policy Optimization10 Jun
  6. 2025What Can RL Bring to VLA Generalization? An Empirical Study26 May
  7. 2025VLA-RL: Towards Masterful and General Robotic Manipulation with Scalable Reinforcement Learning24 May
  8. 2025ReinboT: Amplifying Robot Visual-Language Manipulation with Reinforcement Learning12 May
  9. 2025MoRE: Unlocking Scalability in Reinforcement Learning for Quadruped Vision-Language-Action Models11 Mar
  10. 2025ConRFT: A Reinforced Fine-tuning Method for VLA Models via Consistency Policy8 Feb
  11. 2025Improving Vision-Language-Action Model with Online Reinforcement Learning28 Jan
  12. 2024Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policy20 May

Other references · 51

  1. 2015Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognitioncited by 52,096
  2. 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Controlcited by 3,080
  3. 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 2,887
  4. 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Controlcited by 2,407
  5. 2022RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scalecited by 2,061
  6. 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalizationcited by 1,761
  7. 2016Generative Adversarial Imitation Learningcited by 1,597
  8. 2023LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learningcited by 1,410
  9. 2021Isaac Gym: High Performance GPU-Based Physics Simulation For Robot Learningcited by 998
  10. 2018Diversity is All You Need: Learning Skills without a Reward Functioncited by 752
  11. 2017Learning Complex Dexterous Manipulation with Deep Reinforcement Learning and Demonstrationscited by 715
  12. 2023VILA: On Pre-training for Visual Language Modelscited by 692
38 more
  1. 2024RDT-1B: a Diffusion Foundation Model for Bimanual Manipulationcited by 691
  2. 2020AWAC: Accelerating Online Reinforcement Learning with Offline Datasetscited by 671
  3. 2025RoboTwin 2.0: A Scalable Data Generator and Benchmark with Strong Domain Randomization for Robust Bimanual Robotic Manipulationcited by 518
  4. 2025CoT-VLA: Visual Chain-of-Thought Reasoning for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 451
  5. 2025AgiBot World Colosseo: A Large-scale Manipulation Platform for Scalable and Intelligent Embodied Systemscited by 405
  6. 2023Driving into the Future: Multiview Visual Forecasting and Planning with World Model for Autonomous Drivingcited by 319
  7. 2019Dynamics-Aware Unsupervised Discovery of Skillscited by 313
  8. 2018Reinforced Cross-Modal Matching and Self-Supervised Imitation Learning for Vision-Language Navigationcited by 305
  9. 2018Residual Reinforcement Learning for Robot Controlcited by 274
  10. 2024Navigation World Modelscited by 272
  11. 2016Unsupervised Learning for Physical Interaction through Video Predictioncited by 260
  12. 2023Cal-QL: Calibrated Offline RL Pre-Training for Efficient Online Fine-Tuningcited by 237
  13. 2016Variational Deep Embedding: An Unsupervised and Generative Approach to Clusteringcited by 220
  14. 2024Precise and Dexterous Robotic Manipulation via Human-in-the-Loop Reinforcement Learningcited by 189
  15. 2023Real-World Humanoid Locomotion with Reinforcement Learningcited by 187
  16. 2021Behavior From the Void: Unsupervised Active Pre-Trainingcited by 174
  17. 2023ManipLLM: Embodied Multimodal Large Language Model for Object-Centric Robotic Manipulationcited by 162
  18. 2024Fine-Tuning Large Vision-Language Models as Decision-Making Agents via Reinforcement Learningcited by 158
  19. 2023ANYmal Parkour: Learning Agile Navigation for Quadrupedal Robotscited by 152
  20. 2024BEHAVIOR-1K: A Human-Centered, Embodied AI Benchmark with 1,000 Everyday Activities and Realistic Simulationcited by 148
  21. 2017Imagination-Augmented Agents for Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 140
  22. 2025Magma: A Foundation Model for Multimodal AI Agentscited by 139
  23. 2024DeeR-VLA: Dynamic Inference of Multimodal Large Language Models for Efficient Robot Executioncited by 117
  24. 2023Policy Representation via Diffusion Probability Model for Reinforcement Learningcited by 112
  25. 2024RoboMamba: Efficient Vision-Language-Action Model for Robotic Reasoning and Manipulationcited by 103
  26. 2024IRASim: A Fine-Grained World Model for Robot Manipulationcited by 100
  27. 2019Truly Proximal Policy Optimizationcited by 69
  28. 2025villa-X: Enhancing Latent Action Modeling in Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 63
  29. 2024FLaRe: Achieving Masterful and Adaptive Robot Policies with Large-Scale Reinforcement Learning Fine-Tuningcited by 54
  30. 2024Learning Multimodal Behaviors from Scratch with Diffusion Policy Gradientcited by 51
  31. 2024RLDG: Robotic Generalist Policy Distillation via Reinforcement Learningcited by 47
  32. 2025VidBot: Learning Generalizable 3D Actions from In-the-Wild 2D Human Videos for Zero-Shot Robotic Manipulationcited by 46
  33. 2024From Multimodal LLMs to Generalist Embodied Agents: Methods and Lessonscited by 42
  34. 2025Is Diversity All You Need for Scalable Robotic Manipulation?cited by 20
  35. 2025Balancing Signal and Variance: Adaptive Offline RL Post-Training for VLA Flow Modelscited by 15
  36. 2025A Data-Centric Revisit of Pre-Trained Vision Models for Robot Learningcited by 7
  37. 2024Learning World Models for Unconstrained Goal Navigationcited by 6
  38. 2023Galactic: Scaling End-to-End Reinforcement Learning for Rearrangement at 100k Steps-Per-Secondcited by 5

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Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.

3 papers.

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  1. 2025Steering Vision-Language-Action Models as Anti-Exploration: A Test-Time Scaling Approach
  2. 2026Vision-Language-Action Jump-Starting for Reinforcement Learning Robotic Agents
  3. 2026SynthDemo-RL: Breaking the Zero-Reward Barrier in VLA Adaptation with LLM-Guided Synthetic Demonstrations
  4. 2025SRPO: Self-Referential Policy Optimization for Vision-Language-Action Models
  5. 2026TEMPO: Semantic-Action Decoupled RL Post-Training for Vision-Language-Action Models
  6. 2026Rethinking Visual-Language-Action Model Scaling: Alignment, Mixture, and Regularization
  7. 2025STARE-VLA: Progressive Stage-Aware Reinforcement for Fine-Tuning Vision-Language-Action Models
  8. 2025Reinforcing Action Policies by Prophesying