mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

FLUX: Accelerating Cross-Embodiment Generative Navigation Policies via Rectified Flow and Static-to-Dynamic Learning

arXiv 2603.12806 ↗First posted 13 Mar 2026cs.ROcited by 2

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

Abstract (arXiv)

Autonomous navigation requires a broad spectrum of skills, from static goal-reaching to dynamic social traversal, yet evaluation remains fragmented across disparate protocols. We introduce DynBench, a dynamic navigation benchmark featuring physically valid crowd simulation. Combined with existing static protocols, it supports comprehensive evaluation across six fundamental navigation tasks. Within this framework, we propose FLUX, the first flow-based unified navigation policy. By linearizing probability flow, FLUX replaces iterative denoising with straight-line trajectories, improving per-step inference efficiency by 47% over prior flow-based methods and 29% over diffusion-based ones. Following a static-to-dynamic curriculum, FLUX initially establishes geometric priors and is subsequently refined through reinforcement learning in dynamic social environments. This regime not only strengthens socially-aware navigation but also enhances static task robustness by capturing recovery behaviors through stochastic action distributions. FLUX achieves state-of-the-art performance across all tasks and demonstrates zero-shot sim-to-real transfer on wheeled, quadrupedal, and humanoid platforms without any fine-tuning.

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 20 of its 25 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 13 Mar 2026.

Builds on

20 of 25 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025NavDP: Learning Sim-to-Real Navigation Diffusion Policy with Privileged Information Guidance13 May
  2. 2024FlowNav: Combining Flow Matching and Depth Priors for Efficient Navigation14 Nov
  3. 2023NoMaD: Goal Masked Diffusion Policies for Navigation and Exploration11 Oct

Other references · 17

  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  2. 2024DeepSeekMath: Pushing the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Open Language Modelscited by 9,379
  3. 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modelingcited by 5,702
  4. 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flowcited by 3,700
  5. 2021Isaac Gym: High Performance GPU-Based Physics Simulation For Robot Learningcited by 998
  6. 2018Gibson Env: Real-World Perception for Embodied Agentscited by 481
  7. 2019DD-PPO: Learning Near-Perfect PointGoal Navigators from 2.5 Billion Framescited by 362
  8. 2023ViNT: A Foundation Model for Visual Navigationcited by 222
  9. 2018Crowd-Robot Interaction: Crowd-aware Robot Navigation with Attention-based Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 175
  10. 2022GNM: A General Navigation Model to Drive Any Robotcited by 171
  11. 2024Lotus: Diffusion-based Visual Foundation Model for High-quality Dense Predictioncited by 166
  12. 2022Socially Compliant Navigation Dataset (SCAND): A Large-Scale Dataset of Demonstrations for Social Navigationcited by 127
5 more
  1. 2023ViPlanner: Visual Semantic Imperative Learning for Local Navigationcited by 46
  2. 2023iPlanner: Imperative Path Planningcited by 37
  3. 2025Towards Autonomous Micromobility through Scalable Urban Simulationcited by 16
  4. 2024From Cognition to Precognition: A Future-Aware Framework for Social Navigationcited by 10
  5. 2022Arena-Bench: A Benchmarking Suite for Obstacle Avoidance Approaches in Highly Dynamic Environmentscited by 9

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 2.

2 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2021SOCIALGYM: A Framework for Benchmarking Social Robot Navigation
  2. 2026Performance-Preserving Online Adaptation in Social Navigation via Diffusion Steering
  3. 2024Hyp2Nav: Hyperbolic Planning and Curiosity for Crowd Navigation
  4. 2024Navigating the Human Maze: Real-Time Robot Pathfinding with Generative Imitation Learning
  5. 2026SoGuDiff: Socially Guided Diffusion for Steerable, Norm-Grounded Robot Navigation
  6. 2025A New Trajectory-Oriented Approach to Enhancing Comprehensive Crowd Navigation Performance
  7. 2025SocialNav: Training Human-Inspired Foundation Model for Socially-Aware Embodied Navigation
  8. 2025SocialNav-Map: Dynamic Mapping with Human Trajectory Prediction for Zero-Shot Social Navigation