CORAL: Scalable Multi-Task Robot Learning via LoRA Experts
On the map: Vision-language-action models → Reinforcement learning and post-training
Abstract (arXiv)
Deploying Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models in real-world robotics exposes a core multi-task learning challenge: reconciling task interference in multi-task robotic learning. When multiple tasks are jointly fine-tuned in a single stage, gradients from different tasks can conflict, causing negative transfer and reducing per-task performance. Yet maintaining a separate full checkpoint per task is often storage- and deployment-prohibitive. To address this dilemma, we present CORAL, a backbone- and embodiment-agnostic framework designed primarily to mitigate multi-task interference while remaining naturally extensible to a continuous stream of new tasks. CORAL freezes a single pre-trained VLA backbone and attaches one lightweight Low-Rank Adaptation (LoRA) expert per task; at runtime, a dynamic inference engine (the CORAL Manager) routes language instructions to the appropriate expert and swaps experts on the fly with zero inference overhead. This strict parameter isolation avoids complex gating networks and prevents parameter-level cross-task interference by construction; as an added capability, it also enables sequentially introducing new tasks without parameter overwriting caused by catastrophic forgetting. We validate CORAL on a real-world Galaxea R1 dual-arm mobile manipulator and three simulation benchmarks (LIBERO, WidowX, Google Robot), where CORAL overcomes fine-grained instructional ambiguity and substantially outperforms joint training, yielding a practical and scalable system for lifelong multi-task robot learning. Website: https://frontierrobo.github.io/CORAL
Key facts. Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning and post-training, one of 13 directions in Vision-language-action models. Builds on 55 of its 55 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 10 Mar 2026.
Builds on
55 of 55 references.
Closest ancestors · 4
Same direction, newest first
- 2026Towards Long-Lived Robots: Continual Learning VLA Models via Reinforcement Fine-Tuning11 Feb
- 2026CRL-VLA: Continual Vision-Language-Action Learning3 Feb
- 2025Continually Evolving Skill Knowledge in Vision Language Action Model22 Nov
- 2025MoRE: Unlocking Scalability in Reinforcement Learning for Quadruped Vision-Language-Action Models11 Mar
Other references · 51
- 2021LoRA: Low-Rank Adaptation of Large Language Modelscited by 14,084
- 2016Overcoming catastrophic forgetting in neural networkscited by 4,718
- 2019Parameter-Efficient Transfer Learning for NLPcited by 4,195
- 2021Prefix-Tuning: Optimizing Continuous Prompts for Generationcited by 3,878
- 2021The Power of Scale for Parameter-Efficient Prompt Tuningcited by 3,769
- 2017Outrageously Large Neural Networks: The Sparsely-Gated Mixture-of-Experts Layercited by 3,413
- 2023QLoRA: Efficient Finetuning of Quantized LLMscited by 3,355
- 2021Switch Transformers: Scaling to Trillion Parameter Models with Simple and Efficient Sparsitycited by 3,014
- 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Controlcited by 2,993
- 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 2,777
- 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Controlcited by 2,297
- 2017Gradient Episodic Memory for Continual Learningcited by 1,871
38 more
- 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalizationcited by 1,653
- 2023LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learningcited by 1,338
- 2025GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robotscited by 1,167
- 2020Dark Experience for General Continual Learning: a Strong, Simple Baselinecited by 895
- 2021GLaM: Efficient Scaling of Language Models with Mixture-of-Expertscited by 890
- 2025Fine-Tuning Vision-Language-Action Models: Optimizing Speed and Successcited by 844
- 2024Evaluating Real-World Robot Manipulation Policies in Simulationcited by 484
- 2025AgiBot World Colosseo: A Large-scale Manipulation Platform for Scalable and Intelligent Embodied Systemscited by 390
- 2025UniVLA: Learning to Act Anywhere with Task-centric Latent Actionscited by 386
- 2023Orthogonal Subspace Learning for Language Model Continual Learningcited by 296
- 2025X-VLA: Soft-Prompted Transformer as Scalable Cross-Embodiment Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 285
- 2021New Insights on Reducing Abrupt Representation Change in Online Continual Learningcited by 215
- 2024InfLoRA: Interference-Free Low-Rank Adaptation for Continual Learningcited by 189
- 2025MemoryVLA: Perceptual-Cognitive Memory in Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulationcited by 183
- 2025VLA-Adapter: An Effective Paradigm for Tiny-Scale Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 140
- 2020A Survey on Negative Transfercited by 120
- 2025Discrete Diffusion VLA: Bringing Discrete Diffusion to Action Decoding in Vision-Language-Action Policiescited by 90
- 2025Galaxea Open-World Dataset and G0 Dual-System VLA Modelcited by 90
- 2025PD-VLA: Accelerating Vision-Language-Action Model Integrated with Action Chunking via Parallel Decodingcited by 88
- 2025ForceVLA: Enhancing VLA Models with a Force-aware MoE for Contact-rich Manipulationcited by 87
- 2025DriveMoE: Mixture-of-Experts for Vision-Language-Action Model in End-to-End Autonomous Drivingcited by 85
- 2025MoLe-VLA: Dynamic Layer-skipping Vision Language Action Model via Mixture-of-Layers for Efficient Robot Manipulationcited by 69
- 2025FLOWER: Democratizing Generalist Robot Policies with Efficient Vision-Language-Action Flow Policiescited by 56
- 2023TAIL: Task-specific Adapters for Imitation Learning with Large Pretrained Modelscited by 48
- 2024Efficient Diffusion Transformer Policies with Mixture of Expert Denoisers for Multitask Learningcited by 46
- 2023Continual Learning with Low Rank Adaptationcited by 27
- 2021Elastic Weight Consolidation (EWC): Nuts and Boltscited by 21
- 2025MergeVLA: Cross-Skill Model Merging Toward a Generalist Vision-Language-Action Agentcited by 15
- 2025Mechanistic Finetuning of Vision-Language-Action Models via Few-Shot Demonstrationscited by 15
- 2024Continual Learning with Weight Interpolationcited by 13
- 2025Expertise need not monopolize: Action-Specialized Mixture of Experts for Vision-Language-Action Learningcited by 12
- 2025An Atomic Skill Library Construction Method for Data-Efficient Embodied Manipulationcited by 10
- 2025HiMoE-VLA: Hierarchical Mixture-of-Experts for Generalist Vision-Language-Action Policiescited by 10
- 2026SimVLA: A Simple VLA Baseline for Robotic Manipulationcited by 10
- 2025MoTVLA: A Vision-Language-Action Model with Unified Fast-Slow Reasoningcited by 9
- 2025Lite VLA: Efficient Vision-Language-Action Control on CPU-Bound Edge Robotscited by 9
- 2025Dynamic Mixture of Progressive Parameter-Efficient Expert Library for Lifelong Robot Learningcited by 8
- 2025MoIRA: Modular Instruction Routing Architecture for Multi-Task Roboticscited by 4
50 most cited of 51 All 51 (JSON)
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 8.
8 papers.
- 2026ABot-M0.5: Unified Mobility-and-Manipulation World Action Modelcited by 28
- 2026Evo-Depth: A Lightweight Depth-Enhanced Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 13
- 2026VLA-Pro: Cross-Task Procedural Memory Transfer for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 2
- 2026PHASER: Phase-Aware and Semantic Experience Replay for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 1
- 2026An Action Is Worth One Patch: Unified World-Action Modeling with PatchWAMcited by 0
- 2026SEES: A Self-Evolving Embodied System via Failure-Guided VLA Policy Adaptationcited by 0
- 2026Train Together or Merge Later? Unifying VLA Experts via a Shared Action Interfacecited by 0
- 2026RoboCoach: World Models as Active Coaches for Compositional Robot Skillscited by 0
- 2026RoboCoach: World Models as Active Coaches for Compositional Robot Skills30 Sep 2026
- 2026Train Together or Merge Later? Unifying VLA Experts via a Shared Action Interface27 Sep 2026
- 2026SEES: A Self-Evolving Embodied System via Failure-Guided VLA Policy Adaptation26 Sep 2026
- 2026An Action Is Worth One Patch: Unified World-Action Modeling with PatchWAM22 Sep 2026
- 2026ABot-M0.5: Unified Mobility-and-Manipulation World Action Model1 Jul 2026
- 2026PHASER: Phase-Aware and Semantic Experience Replay for Vision-Language-Action Models2 Jun 2026
- 2026VLA-Pro: Cross-Task Procedural Memory Transfer for Vision-Language-Action Models28 May 2026
- 2026Evo-Depth: A Lightweight Depth-Enhanced Vision-Language-Action Model14 May 2026
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026Inline Memory Meets Reusable Skills: Memory-centric Framework for Vision-Language-Action Model
- 2026τ0-VLA: a Hierarchical Robot Foundation Model with World-Model-Guided Test-Time Computation
- 2026Learning to Accelerate Vision-Language-Action Models through Adaptive Visual Token Caching
- 2026CoRAL: Contact-Rich Adaptive LLM-based Control for Robotic Manipulation
- 2026ElegantVLA: Learning When to Think for Efficient Vision-Language-Action Models
- 2025MoS-VLA: A Vision-Language-Action Model with One-Shot Skill Adaptation
- 2026Decoupling Vision, Language, and Action for Efficient Multi-Task Robot Policies
- 2026Robotic Policy Adaptation via Weight-Space Meta-Learning