# Lifelong Language-Conditioned Robotic Manipulation Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.05160 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.05160/

## Key facts

- Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 29 of its 59 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 5 Mar 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Llama 2: Open Foundation and Fine-Tuned Chat Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.09288/) (2023)
- [Learning without Forgetting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1606.09282/) (2016)
- [iCaRL: Incremental Classifier and Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07725/) (2016)
- [Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.12213/) (2024)
- [RLBench: The Robot Learning Benchmark & Learning Environment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.12271/) (2019)
- [Perceiver-Actor: A Multi-Task Transformer for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.05451/) (2022)
- [VIMA: General Robot Manipulation with Multimodal Prompts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03094/) (2022)
- [RVT: Robotic View Transformer for 3D Object Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14896/) (2023)
- [Aligning Cyber Space with Physical World: A Comprehensive Survey on Embodied AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.06886/) (2024)
- [Language Models Meet World Models: Embodied Experiences Enhance Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.10626/) (2023)
- [Continual Learning with Node-Importance based Adaptive Group Sparse Regularization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.13726/) (2020)
- [FlowPolicy: Enabling Fast and Robust 3D Flow-based Policy via Consistency Flow Matching for Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04987/) (2024)
- [Higher Layers Need More LoRA Experts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.08562/) (2024)
- [GNFactor: Multi-Task Real Robot Learning with Generalizable Neural Feature Fields](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.16891/) (2023)
- [LLARVA: Vision-Action Instruction Tuning Enhances Robot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.11815/) (2024)
- [Create Your World: Lifelong Text-to-Image Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.04430/) (2023)
- [CoSCL: Cooperation of Small Continual Learners is Stronger than a Big One](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.06543/) (2022)
- [A Survey of Embodied Learning for Object-Centric Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.11537/) (2024)
- [Incremental Learning via Rate Reduction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.14593/) (2020)
- [Kernel Continual Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.05757/) (2021)
- [Transferring Foundation Models for Generalizable Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05716/) (2023)
- [PixelVLA: Advancing Pixel-level Understanding in Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.01571/) (2025)
- [Think Small, Act Big: Primitive Prompt Learning for Lifelong Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.00420/) (2025)
- [Never-Ending Behavior-Cloning Agent for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.00336/) (2024)
- [Learning Efficient and Robust Language-conditioned Manipulation using Textual-Visual Relevancy and Equivariant Language Mapping](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.15677/) (2024)
- [CrayonRobo: Object-Centric Prompt-Driven Vision-Language-Action Model for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02166/) (2025)
- [SeqWalker: Sequential-Horizon Vision-and-Language Navigation with Hierarchical Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.04699/) (2026)
- [CRISP: Contrastive Residual Injection and Semantic Prompting for Continual Video Instance Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.10432/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 4 of 4)

- [Dynamic Agent Skills: A Lifecycle Survey and Taxonomy of Evolving Skill Libraries](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.10113/) (2026)
- [InSight: Self-Guided Skill Acquisition via Steerable VLAs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.24884/) (2026)
- [Continual Quadruped Robots Coordination via Semantic Skill Discovery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.08102/) (2026)
- [OrthoSkillVLA: Continual Skill Learning via Gradient-Informed Skill Subspace Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.19589/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Traditional language-conditioned manipulation agent sequential adaptation to new manipulation skills leads to catastrophic forgetting of old skills, limiting dynamic scene practical deployment. In this paper, we propose SkillsCrafter, a novel robotic manipulation framework designed to continually learn multiple skills while reducing catastrophic forgetting of old skills. Specifically, we propose a Manipulation Skills Adaptation to retain the old skills knowledge while inheriting the shared knowledge between new and old skills to facilitate learning of new skills. Meanwhile, we perform the singular value decomposition on the diverse skill instructions to obtain common skill semantic subspace projection matrices, thereby recording the essential semantic space of skills. To achieve forget-less and generalization manipulation, we propose a Skills Specialization Aggregation to compute inter-skills similarity in skill semantic subspaces, achieving aggregation of the previously learned skill knowledge for any new or unknown skill. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of our proposed SkillsCrafter.