Embodied Foundation Models at the Edge: A Survey of Deployment Constraints and Mitigation Strategies
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Abstract (arXiv)
Deploying foundation models in embodied edge systems is fundamentally a systems problem, not just a problem of model compression. Real-time control must operate within strict size, weight, and power constraints, where memory traffic, compute latency, timing variability, and safety margins interact directly. The Deployment Gauntlet organizes these constraints into eight coupled barriers that determine whether embodied foundation models can run reliably in practice. Across representative edge workloads, autoregressive Vision-Language-Action policies are constrained primarily by memory bandwidth, whereas diffusion-based controllers are limited more by compute latency and sustained execution cost. Reliable deployment therefore depends on system-level co-design across memory, scheduling, communication, and model architecture, including decompositions that separate fast control from slower semantic reasoning.
Key facts. Cited by 6 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 124 of its 211 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 16 Mar 2026.
Builds on
124 of 211 references.
References · 124
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50 most cited of 124 All 124 (JSON)
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Citing papers per year: 2026: 6.
6 papers.
- 2026G-Drift MIA: Membership Inference via Gradient-Induced Feature Drift in LLMscited by 6
- 2026SafeCommit: Certifying When Memory-Grounded Agents May Safely Actcited by 4
- 2026uScenes: A Multimodal RGB and 3D Sonar Dataset for Underwater Robot Perceptioncited by 2
- 2026RoboEvolve: Co-Evolving Planner-Simulator for Robotic Manipulation with Limited Datacited by 1
- 2026LADBench: A Benchmark for Logical Fault Detection in Imagescited by 0
- 2026Embodied Operators and Benchmarking: Toward Reusable and Deployable Embodied Intelligence Systemscited by 0
- 2026uScenes: A Multimodal RGB and 3D Sonar Dataset for Underwater Robot Perception28 Aug 2026
- 2026SafeCommit: Certifying When Memory-Grounded Agents May Safely Act4 Aug 2026
- 2026Embodied Operators and Benchmarking: Toward Reusable and Deployable Embodied Intelligence Systems3 Jul 2026
- 2026LADBench: A Benchmark for Logical Fault Detection in Images16 Jun 2026
- 2026RoboEvolve: Co-Evolving Planner-Simulator for Robotic Manipulation with Limited Data13 May 2026
- 2026G-Drift MIA: Membership Inference via Gradient-Induced Feature Drift in LLMs1 Apr 2026
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