mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

VLAgents: A Policy Server for Efficient VLA Inference

arXiv 2601.11250 ↗First posted 16 Jan 2026cs.ROcited by 3

On the map: Vision-language-action models → Efficient VLA inference and adaptation

Abstract (arXiv)

The rapid emergence of Vision-Language-Action models (VLAs) has a significant impact on robotics. However, their deployment remains complex due to the fragmented interfaces and the inherent communication latency in distributed setups. To address this, we introduce VLAgents, a modular policy server that abstracts VLA inferencing behind a unified Gymnasium-style protocol. Crucially, its communication layer transparently adapts to the context by supporting both zero-copy shared memory for high-speed simulation and compressed streaming for remote hardware. In this work, we present the architecture of VLAgents and validate it by integrating seven policies -- including OpenVLA and Pi Zero. In a benchmark with both local and remote communication, we further demonstrate how it outperforms the default policy servers provided by OpenVLA, OpenPi, and LeRobot. VLAgents is available at https://github.com/RobotControlStack/vlagents

Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Efficient VLA inference and adaptation, one of 13 directions in Vision-language-action models. Builds on 13 of its 16 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 16 Jan 2026.

Builds on

13 of 16 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025FAST: Efficient Action Tokenization for Vision-Language-Action Models16 Jan

Other references · 12

  1. 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 2,777
  2. 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusioncited by 2,730
  3. 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Controlcited by 2,297
  4. 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalizationcited by 1,653
  5. 2024Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policycited by 1,427
  6. 2023LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learningcited by 1,338
  7. 2025V-JEPA 2: Self-Supervised Video Models Enable Understanding, Prediction and Planningcited by 738
  8. 2024Evaluating Real-World Robot Manipulation Policies in Simulationcited by 484
  9. 2024ManiSkill3: GPU Parallelized Robotics Simulation and Rendering for Generalizable Embodied AIcited by 216
  10. 2025Refined Policy Distillation: From VLA Generalists to RL Expertscited by 19
  11. 2025Robot Control Stack: A Lean Ecosystem for Robot Learning at Scalecited by 8
  12. 2025Augmented Reality for RObots (ARRO): Pointing Visuomotor Policies Towards Visual Robustnesscited by 7

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.

3 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Efficient Vision-Language-Action Management and Serving for Robot Factories
  2. 2026How Fast Can I Run My VLA? Demystifying VLA Inference Performance with VLA-Perf
  3. 2026KerColle: Unlocking Fine-Grained GPU Concurrency in Vision-Language-Action Models
  4. 2025Towards Deploying VLA without Fine-Tuning: Plug-and-Play Inference-Time VLA Policy Steering via Embodied Evolutionary Diffusion
  5. 2025VLA-RAIL: A Real-Time Asynchronous Inference Linker for VLA Models and Robots
  6. 2026Characterizing Vision-Language-Action Models across XPUs: Constraints and Acceleration for On-Robot Deployment
  7. 2026ComVLA: Communication-Aware Split Inference for VLA Models in 6G-Connected Robotics
  8. 2026CoRE-VLA: Towards Scalable and Robust Vision-Language-Action Modeling via Conditional Routing of Experts