mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Flexible Multitask Learning with Factorized Diffusion Policy

arXiv 2512.21898 ↗First posted 26 Dec 2025cs.RO cs.AIcited by 5

On the map: Diffusion models → Diffusion and flow policies for robotics

Abstract (arXiv)

Multitask learning poses significant challenges due to the highly multimodal and diverse nature of robot action distributions. However, effectively fitting policies to these complex task distributions is often difficult, and existing monolithic models often underfit the action distribution and lack the flexibility required for efficient adaptation. We introduce a novel modular diffusion policy framework that factorizes complex action distributions into a composition of specialized diffusion models, each capturing a distinct sub-mode of the behavior space for a more effective overall policy. In addition, this modular structure enables flexible policy adaptation to new tasks by adding or fine-tuning components, which inherently mitigates catastrophic forgetting. Empirically, across both simulation and real-world robotic manipulation settings, we illustrate how our method consistently outperforms strong modular and monolithic baselines.

Key facts. Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Diffusion and flow policies for robotics, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 43 of its 53 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 26 Dec 2025.

Builds on

43 of 53 references.

Closest ancestors · 7

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024Efficient Diffusion Transformer Policies with Mixture of Expert Denoisers for Multitask Learning17 Dec
  2. 2024Sparse Diffusion Policy: A Sparse, Reusable, and Flexible Policy for Robot Learning1 Jul
  3. 2023Motion Planning Diffusion: Learning and Planning of Robot Motions with Diffusion Models3 Aug
  4. 2023Goal-Conditioned Imitation Learning using Score-based Diffusion Policies5 Apr
  5. 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusion7 Mar
  6. 2022Is Conditional Generative Modeling all you need for Decision-Making?28 Nov
  7. 2022SE(3)-DiffusionFields: Learning smooth cost functions for joint grasp and motion optimization through diffusion8 Sep

Other references · 36

  1. 2021Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervisioncited by 33,744
  2. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  3. 2020Denoising Diffusion Implicit Modelscited by 9,781
  4. 2022Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latentscited by 6,585
  5. 2021Improved Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 3,761
  6. 2017Outrageously Large Neural Networks: The Sparsely-Gated Mixture-of-Experts Layercited by 3,509
  7. 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 2,887
  8. 2022Video Diffusion Modelscited by 2,305
  9. 2024Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policycited by 1,484
  10. 2023LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learningcited by 1,410
  11. 2019Meta-World: A Benchmark and Evaluation for Multi-Task and Meta Reinforcement Learningcited by 1,204
  12. 2022Planning with Diffusion for Flexible Behavior Synthesiscited by 1,061
24 more
  1. 2019RLBench: The Robot Learning Benchmark & Learning Environmentcited by 689
  2. 2022Compositional Visual Generation with Composable Diffusion Modelscited by 624
  3. 2023Learning Universal Policies via Text-Guided Video Generationcited by 522
  4. 2023Reduce, Reuse, Recycle: Compositional Generation with Energy-Based Diffusion Models and MCMCcited by 220
  5. 2016Modular Multitask Reinforcement Learning with Policy Sketchescited by 203
  6. 2023Scaling Up and Distilling Down: Language-Guided Robot Skill Acquisitioncited by 159
  7. 2016Learning Modular Neural Network Policies for Multi-Task and Multi-Robot Transfercited by 127
  8. 2023Compositional Foundation Models for Hierarchical Planningcited by 95
  9. 2020Multi-expert learning of adaptive legged locomotioncited by 67
  10. 2024MoMa: Efficient Early-Fusion Pre-training with Mixture of Modality-Aware Expertscited by 62
  11. 2024PoCo: Policy Composition from and for Heterogeneous Robot Learningcited by 42
  12. 2024Compositional Generative Modeling: A Single Model is Not All You Needcited by 41
  13. 2023Compositional Diffusion-Based Continuous Constraint Solverscited by 40
  14. 2023Unsupervised Compositional Concepts Discovery with Text-to-Image Generative Modelscited by 36
  15. 2024Diffusion Soup: Model Merging for Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 26
  16. 2025Learning Real-World Action-Video Dynamics with Heterogeneous Masked Autoregressioncited by 23
  17. 2025MoE-Loco: Mixture of Experts for Multitask Locomotioncited by 23
  18. 2024Variational Distillation of Diffusion Policies into Mixture of Expertscited by 15
  19. 2025Multi-Modal Manipulation via Multi-Modal Policy Consensuscited by 13
  20. 2024Compositional Image Decomposition with Diffusion Modelscited by 12
  21. 2025Learning Coordinated Bimanual Manipulation Policies using State Diffusion and Inverse Dynamics Modelscited by 9
  22. 2025Tool-as-Interface: Learning Robot Policies from Observing Human Tool Usecited by 8
  23. 2019Robot Sound Interpretation: Combining Sight and Sound in Learning-Based Controlcited by 7
  24. 2025Hybrid Diffusion for Simultaneous Symbolic and Continuous Planningcited by 7

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 5.

5 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025Factorizing Diffusion Policies for Observation Modality Prioritization
  2. 2026Abstracting Robot Manipulation Skills via Mixture-of-Experts Diffusion Policies
  3. 2025Demystifying Diffusion Policies: Action Memorization and Simple Lookup Table Alternatives
  4. 2025A Careful Examination of Large Behavior Models for Multitask Dexterous Manipulation
  5. 2026From Noise to Control: Parameterized Diffusion Policies
  6. 2025D2PPO: Diffusion Policy Policy Optimization with Dispersive Loss
  7. 2026A Single Diffusion-Policy Controller for Multi-Task Block Pushing with Zero-Shot Sim-to-Real Transfer
  8. 2026Learning Diffusion Policy from Primitive Skills for Robot Manipulation