mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

ReMem-VLA: Empowering Vision-Language-Action Model with Memory via Dual-Level Recurrent Queries

arXiv 2603.12942 ↗First posted 13 Mar 2026cs.ROcited by 28

On the map: Vision-language-action models → Reasoning and chain-of-thought in VLA

Abstract (arXiv)

Vision-language-action (VLA) models for closed-loop robot control are typically cast under the Markov assumption, making them prone to errors on tasks requiring historical context. To incorporate memory, existing VLAs either retrieve from a memory bank, which can be misled by distractors, or extend the frame window, whose fixed horizon still limits long-term retention. In this paper, we introduce ReMem-VLA, a Recurrent Memory VLA model equipped with two sets of learnable queries: frame-level recurrent memory queries for propagating information across consecutive frames to support short-term memory, and chunk-level recurrent memory queries for carrying context across temporal chunks for long-term memory. These queries are trained end-to-end to aggregate and maintain relevant context over time, implicitly guiding the model's decisions without additional training or inference cost. Furthermore, to enhance visual memory, we introduce Past Observation Prediction as an auxiliary training objective. Through extensive memory-centric simulation and real-world robot experiments, we demonstrate that ReMem-VLA exhibits strong memory capabilities across multiple dimensions, including spatial, sequential, episodic, temporal, and visual memory. ReMem-VLA significantly outperforms memory-free VLA baselines π0.5 and OpenVLA-OFT and surpasses MemoryVLA on memory-dependent tasks by a large margin.

Key facts. Cited by 28 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reasoning and chain-of-thought in VLA, one of 13 directions in Vision-language-action models. Builds on 54 of its 56 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 13 Mar 2026.

Builds on

54 of 56 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025HAMLET: Switch your Vision-Language-Action Model into a History-Aware Policy1 Oct
  2. 2025MemoryVLA: Perceptual-Cognitive Memory in Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulation26 Aug
  3. 2025InstructVLA: Vision-Language-Action Instruction Tuning from Understanding to Manipulation23 Jul

Other references · 51

  1. 2020An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scalecited by 29,915
  2. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 20,851
  3. 2020Denoising Diffusion Implicit Modelscited by 9,655
  4. 2023Visual Instruction Tuningcited by 7,792
  5. 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Controlcited by 2,993
  6. 2024SAM 2: Segment Anything in Images and Videoscited by 2,784
  7. 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 2,777
  8. 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Controlcited by 2,297
  9. 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalizationcited by 1,653
  10. 2023Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardwarecited by 1,490
  11. 2024Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policycited by 1,427
  12. 2025GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robotscited by 1,167
38 more
  1. 2025Fine-Tuning Vision-Language-Action Models: Optimizing Speed and Successcited by 844
  2. 2024RDT-1B: a Diffusion Foundation Model for Bimanual Manipulationcited by 670
  3. 2025FAST: Efficient Action Tokenization for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 643
  4. 2023BridgeData V2: A Dataset for Robot Learning at Scalecited by 634
  5. 2023CoTracker: It is Better to Track Togethercited by 516
  6. 2025SpatialVLA: Exploring Spatial Representations for Visual-Language-Action Modelcited by 502
  7. 2025AgiBot World Colosseo: A Large-scale Manipulation Platform for Scalable and Intelligent Embodied Systemscited by 390
  8. 2025UniVLA: Learning to Act Anywhere with Task-centric Latent Actionscited by 386
  9. 2023Unleashing Large-Scale Video Generative Pre-training for Visual Robot Manipulationcited by 353
  10. 2023Vision-Language Foundation Models as Effective Robot Imitatorscited by 344
  11. 2024TraceVLA: Visual Trace Prompting Enhances Spatial-Temporal Awareness for Generalist Robotic Policiescited by 298
  12. 2026Cosmos Policy: Fine-Tuning Video Models for Visuomotor Control and Planningcited by 274
  13. 2025Motus: A Unified Latent Action World Modelcited by 231
  14. 2024PaliGemma 2: A Family of Versatile VLMs for Transfercited by 204
  15. 2025DreamVLA: A Vision-Language-Action Model Dreamed with Comprehensive World Knowledgecited by 203
  16. 2024Predictive Inverse Dynamics Models are Scalable Learners for Robotic Manipulationcited by 159
  17. 2025VLA-Adapter: An Effective Paradigm for Tiny-Scale Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 140
  18. 2025mimic-video: Video-Action Models for Generalizable Robot Control Beyond VLAscited by 133
  19. 2025Genie Envisioner: A Unified World Foundation Platform for Robotic Manipulationcited by 129
  20. 2017Dilated Recurrent Neural Networkscited by 83
  21. 2025InternVLA-M1: A Spatially Guided Vision-Language-Action Framework for Generalist Robot Policycited by 83
  22. 2018Reviving and Improving Recurrent Back-Propagationcited by 69
  23. 2025TAPIP3D: Tracking Any Point in Persistent 3D Geometrycited by 67
  24. 2025MemER: Scaling Up Memory for Robot Control via Experience Retrievalcited by 64
  25. 2025SAM2Act: Integrating Visual Foundation Model with A Memory Architecture for Robotic Manipulationcited by 58
  26. 2025Actions as Language: Fine-Tuning VLMs into VLAs Without Catastrophic Forgettingcited by 52
  27. 2017Skip RNN: Learning to Skip State Updates in Recurrent Neural Networkscited by 49
  28. 2025VLA-0: Building State-of-the-Art VLAs with Zero Modificationcited by 49
  29. 2026InternVLA-A1: Unifying Understanding, Generation and Action for Robotic Manipulationcited by 48
  30. 2026VLM4VLA: Revisiting Vision-Language-Models in Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 38
  31. 2025ContextVLA: Vision-Language-Action Model with Amortized Multi-Frame Contextcited by 34
  32. 2025Learning Long-Context Diffusion Policies via Past-Token Predictioncited by 28
  33. 2025CronusVLA: Towards Efficient and Robust Manipulation via Multi-Frame Vision-Language-Action Modelingcited by 24
  34. 2025AVA-VLA: Improving Vision-Language-Action models with Active Visual Attentioncited by 22
  35. 2026BPP: Long-Context Robot Imitation Learning by Focusing on Key History Framescited by 17
  36. 2024Language-Guided Object-Centric Diffusion Policy for Generalizable and Collision-Aware Robotic Manipulationcited by 14
  37. 2025History-Aware Visuomotor Policy Learning via Point Trackingcited by 10
  38. 2025CoVAR: Co-generation of Video and Action for Robotic Manipulation via Multi-Modal Diffusioncited by 9

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Citing papers per year: 2026: 28.

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  1. 2026MemoryWAM: Efficient World Action Modeling with Persistent Memorycited by 12
  2. 2026Goal2Skill: Long-Horizon Manipulation with Adaptive Planning and Reflectioncited by 9
  3. 2026μVLA: On Recurrent Memory for Partially Observable Manipulation in VLA Modelscited by 7
  4. 2026KEMO: Event-Driven Keyframe Memory for Long-Horizon Robot Manipulation with VLA Policiescited by 5
  5. 2026DIM-WAM: World-Action Modeling with Diverse Historical Event Memorycited by 5
  6. 2026Chameleon: Control-Indexed Prospective Memory for Visuomotor Manipulationcited by 4
  7. 2026NativeMEM: Native Memory Compression for Long-Horizon Robotic Manipulationcited by 4
  8. 2026Dual Latent Memory in Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulationcited by 4
  9. 2026WeaveLA: Event Driven Cross-Subtask Latent Memory Weaving for Repetitive Robot Manipulationcited by 2
  10. 2026Towards Human-like Physical Intelligence: Lifelong Vision-Language-Action Learning for Robotic Manipulationcited by 2
  11. 2026FM-VLA: Force-based Memory for Vision-Language-Action Models in Contact-Rich Manipulationcited by 2
  12. 2026Analytic Concept-Centric Memory for Agentic Embodied Manipulationcited by 1
16 more
  1. 2026AtlasVLA: Persistent World-Ego State Modeling for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 1
  2. 2026LiteVLA-H: Dual-Rate Vision-Language-Action Inference for Onboard Aerial Guidance and Semantic Perceptioncited by 0
  3. 2026StreamPI: Streaming Multimodal Temporal Modeling for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 0
  4. 2026TemporalFlow-VLA: Learning Physically Grounded Execution History for Long-Horizon Robot Manipulationcited by 0
  5. 2026Temporal Forcing: 4D Representation Alignment for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 0
  6. 2026Memory as Plans: World-Action Modeling with Memory-Grounded Planningcited by 0
  7. 2026UniMPA: A Unified Memory-Prediction-Action Model via Action-Grounded Transition Modelingcited by 0
  8. 2026StateMem: Single-State Residual Memory with Adaptive Inference for Vision-Language-Action Policiescited by 0
  9. 2026SmoLSTM: A Compact Vision-Language-Action Model with Recurrent Memory that Persistscited by 0
  10. 2026ActiveArena: Benchmarking and Understanding Active Perception in Robotic Manipulationcited by 0
  11. 2026MemBodied: Recurrent Associative Memory for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 0
  12. 2026DRAM: Delta-rule Recurrent Associative Memory for Robot Manipulation Policiescited by 0
  13. 2026D2-VLA: Dual-Memory Dual-Frequency Vision-Language-Action Model For Long Dynamic Manipulationcited by 0
  14. 2026ReCAT: Remember, Count, and Time: Structured Recurrent Memory for Robot Manipulationcited by 0
  15. 2026Remember What You Did: Action-History Memory with Dual-Expert Denoising for Long-Horizon Vision-Language-Action Policiescited by 0
  16. 2026Recompose and Refine Latent Reasoning Flows for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 0

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  1. 2026Explicit Language Memory for Long-Horizon Planning in Vision-Language-Action Models
  2. 2025Think Twice, Act Once: Token-Aware Compression and Action Reuse for Efficient Inference in Vision-Language-Action Models
  3. 2026ElegantVLA: Learning When to Think for Efficient Vision-Language-Action Models
  4. 2026Recurrent-Depth VLA: Implicit Test-Time Compute Scaling of Vision-Language-Action Models via Latent Iterative Reasoning
  5. 2026EvoMem-VLA: State-Evolution Memory for Long-Horizon Robot Manipulation
  6. 2026LoopVLA: Learning Sufficiency in Recurrent Refinement for Vision-Language-Action Models
  7. 2026SimpleMemVLA: A Simple but Effective Native-Video Memory for Vision-Language-Action Models
  8. 2026Divide-and-Remember: Recursive Action-Relevant Memory for Long-Horizon VLA Policies