# Compositional Visual Planning via Inference-Time Diffusion Scaling

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02646 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.02646/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 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 64 of its 70 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 3 Mar 2026.

## Placed in

- Diffusion models / [Diffusion and flow policies for robotics](https://mlsanity.com/diffusion/diffusion-and-flow-policies-for-robotics/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 64)

- [Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.11239/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Models Beat GANs on Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05233/) (2021)
- [Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1503.03585/) (2015)
- [Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.09748/) (2022)
- [ShapeNet: An Information-Rich 3D Model Repository](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03012/) (2015)
- [Diffusion Posterior Sampling for General Noisy Inverse Problems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.14687/) (2022)
- [Planning with Diffusion for Flexible Behavior Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.09991/) (2022)
- [Cosmos World Foundation Model Platform for Physical AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.03575/) (2025)
- [Diffusion Forcing: Next-token Prediction Meets Full-Sequence Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.01392/) (2024)
- [Compositional Visual Generation with Composable Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.01714/) (2022)
- [SAPIEN: A SimulAted Part-based Interactive ENvironment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08515/) (2020)
- [Diffusion Policies as an Expressive Policy Class for Offline Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.06193/) (2022)
- [MultiDiffusion: Fusing Diffusion Paths for Controlled Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.08113/) (2023)
- [Is Conditional Generative Modeling all you need for Decision-Making?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.15657/) (2022)
- [TD-MPC2: Scalable, Robust World Models for Continuous Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.16828/) (2023)
- [Universal Guidance for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.07121/) (2023)
- [RoboCasa: Large-Scale Simulation of Everyday Tasks for Generalist Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.02523/) (2024)
- [FreeDoM: Training-Free Energy-Guided Conditional Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09833/) (2023)
- [Imitating Human Behaviour with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.10677/) (2023)
- [Real-Time Execution of Action Chunking Flow Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.07339/) (2025)
- [ManiSkill: Generalizable Manipulation Skill Benchmark with Large-Scale Demonstrations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.14483/) (2021)
- [BeyondMimic: From Motion Tracking to Versatile Humanoid Control via Guided Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.08241/) (2025)
- [Manifold Preserving Guided Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16424/) (2023)
- [AdaptDiffuser: Diffusion Models as Adaptive Self-evolving Planners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.01877/) (2023)
- [Gen-L-Video: Multi-Text to Long Video Generation via Temporal Co-Denoising](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18264/) (2023)
- [FIFO-Diffusion: Generating Infinite Videos from Text without Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.11473/) (2024)
- [Diffusion Model is an Effective Planner and Data Synthesizer for Multi-Task Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18459/) (2023)
- [SyncDiffusion: Coherent Montage via Synchronized Joint Diffusions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05178/) (2023)
- [TFG: Unified Training-Free Guidance for Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15761/) (2024)
- [DiffCollage: Parallel Generation of Large Content with Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17076/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Refining Compositional Diffusion for Reliable Long-Horizon Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.03075/) (2026)
- [Coarse-to-Fine Compositional Diffusion for Long-Horizon Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.00837/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Diffusion models excel at short-horizon robot planning, yet scaling them to long-horizon tasks remains challenging due to computational constraints and limited training data. Existing compositional approaches stitch together short segments by separately denoising each component and averaging overlapping regions. However, this suffers from instability as the factorization assumption breaks down in noisy data space, leading to inconsistent global plans. We propose that the key to stable compositional generation lies in enforcing boundary agreement on the estimated clean data (Tweedie estimates) rather than on noisy intermediate states. Our method formulates long-horizon planning as inference over a chain-structured factor graph of overlapping video chunks, where pretrained short-horizon video diffusion models provide local priors. At inference time, we enforce boundary agreement through a novel combination of synchronous and asynchronous message passing that operates on Tweedie estimates, producing globally consistent guidance without requiring additional training. Our training-free framework demonstrates significant improvements over existing baselines, effectively generalizing to unseen start-goal combinations that were not present in the original training data. Project website: https://comp-visual-planning.github.io/