EVA: Aligning Video World Models with Executable Robot Actions via Inverse Dynamics Rewards
On the map: World models → Embodied and robot world models
Abstract (arXiv)
Video generative models are increasingly used as world models for robotics, where a model generates a future visual rollout conditioned on the current observation and task instruction, and an inverse dynamics model (IDM) converts the generated frames into executable robot actions. However, current video world models lack explicit executability constraints. As a result, visually coherent rollouts may still violate rigid-body and kinematic consistency, producing unstable or infeasible control commands when decoded by an IDM. We refer to this mismatch between visual generation and physically executable control as the executability gap. While this gap can be mitigated at inference time using techniques such as rejection sampling, such approaches are inefficient due to the high cost of video generation. In this paper, we leverage the executability gap as a training signal and introduce Executable Video Alignment (EVA), a reinforcement-learning post-training framework for aligning video world models. EVA trains an inverse dynamics model on real robot trajectories and repurposes it as a reward model that evaluates generated videos through the action sequences they induce, encouraging smooth motions measured by velocity, acceleration, and jerk while penalizing actions that violate embodiment constraints. Importantly, the reward remains informative even when generated videos contain severe visual artifacts, since such artifacts typically translate into unstable or out-of-bound actions. Experiments on the RoboTwin benchmark and a real bimanual robot show that EVA reduces embodiment-specific artifacts in generated rollouts and improves downstream task execution success.
Key facts. Cited by 14 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Embodied and robot world models, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 41 of its 46 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 18 Mar 2026.
Builds on
41 of 46 references.
Closest ancestors · 9
Same direction, newest first
- 2026World Action Models are Zero-shot Policies17 Feb
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- 2025DreamGen: Unlocking Generalization in Robot Learning through Video World Models19 May
- 2024IRASim: A Fine-Grained World Model for Robot Manipulation20 Jun
- 2024RoboDreamer: Learning Compositional World Models for Robot Imagination18 Apr
- 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusion7 Mar
Other references · 32
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- 2023Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardwarecited by 1,490
- 2024Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policycited by 1,427
- 2025GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robotscited by 1,167
- 2015End-to-End Training of Deep Visuomotor Policiescited by 847
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- 2023Learning Universal Policies via Text-Guided Video Generationcited by 506
- 2025RoboTwin 2.0: A Scalable Data Generator and Benchmark with Strong Domain Randomization for Robust Bimanual Robotic Manipulationcited by 477
- 2024Video Prediction Policy: A Generalist Robot Policy with Predictive Visual Representationscited by 279
- 2026Cosmos Policy: Fine-Tuning Video Models for Visuomotor Control and Planningcited by 274
- 2025Improving Video Generation with Human Feedbackcited by 267
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- 2025Large Video Planner Enables Generalizable Robot Controlcited by 67
- 2025WoW: Towards a World omniscient World model Through Embodied Interactioncited by 66
- 2025Vidar: Embodied Video Diffusion Model for Generalist Manipulationcited by 58
- 2025RLVR-World: Training World Models with Reinforcement Learningcited by 38
- 2025AnyPos: Automated Task-Agnostic Actions for Bimanual Manipulationcited by 23
- 2025PhyGDPO: Physics-Aware Groupwise Direct Preference Optimization for Physically Consistent Text-to-Video Generationcited by 22
- 2025Vidarc: Embodied Video Diffusion Model for Closed-loop Controlcited by 15
- 2026TAGRPO: Boosting GRPO on Image-to-Video Generation with Direct Trajectory Alignmentcited by 8
- 2025Diffusion-Based Imaginative Coordination for Bimanual Manipulationcited by 7
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Citing papers per year: 2026: 14.
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- 2026World Model for Robot Learning: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 42
- 2026EgoSim: Egocentric World Simulator for Embodied Interaction Generationcited by 11
- 2026World Action Models: A Surveycited by 10
- 2026How Should World Models Be Evaluated for Embodied Decision-Making? A Decision-Making-Centric Positioncited by 9
- 2026Human Cognition in Machines: A Unified Perspective of World Modelscited by 5
- 2026Astronex-World 1.0: Real-Time Interactive World Model Foundationcited by 3
- 2026μ0: A Scalable 3D Interaction-Trace World Modelcited by 2
- 2026Not All Actions Are Equal: Rethinking Conditioning for Dexterous World Modelcited by 1
- 2026Vid2WAM: Distilling Video Diffusion Priors into World Action Modelscited by 1
- 2026World-Action Models for Robot Learning and Control: A Surveycited by 1
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- 2026World-Action Models for Robot Learning and Control: A Survey13 Sep 2026
- 2026No Free Checker: A Survey of Verifiers for Robot Policies8 Sep 2026
- 2026WALL-SS: Scaling Long-horizon World Models via Next-Scale Autoregression26 Aug 2026
- 2026Vid2WAM: Distilling Video Diffusion Priors into World Action Models9 Aug 2026
- 2026Not All Actions Are Equal: Rethinking Conditioning for Dexterous World Model25 Jun 2026
- 2026World Action Models: A Survey18 Jun 2026
- 2026How Should World Models Be Evaluated for Embodied Decision-Making? A Decision-Making-Centric Position13 Jun 2026
- 2026μ0: A Scalable 3D Interaction-Trace World Model11 Jun 2026
- 2026World Model for Robot Learning: A Comprehensive Survey30 Apr 2026
2 more
- 2026World Model for Robot Learning: A Comprehensive Surveycited by 42
- 2026World Action Models: A Surveycited by 10
- 2026How Should World Models Be Evaluated for Embodied Decision-Making? A Decision-Making-Centric Positioncited by 9
- 2026Human Cognition in Machines: A Unified Perspective of World Modelscited by 5
- 2026Astronex-World 1.0: Real-Time Interactive World Model Foundationcited by 3
- 2026μ0: A Scalable 3D Interaction-Trace World Modelcited by 2
- 2026Not All Actions Are Equal: Rethinking Conditioning for Dexterous World Modelcited by 1
- 2026Vid2WAM: Distilling Video Diffusion Priors into World Action Modelscited by 1
- 2026World-Action Models for Robot Learning and Control: A Surveycited by 1
- 2026World Models for Embodied Intelligence: From Plausible to Controllable to Actionablecited by 1
- 2026Long-WAM: Scaling the Context of World-Action Modelscited by 1
- 2026WALL-SS: Scaling Long-horizon World Models via Next-Scale Autoregressioncited by 0
- 2026Long-WAM: Scaling the Context of World-Action Models7 Oct 2026
- 2026Astronex-World 1.0: Real-Time Interactive World Model Foundation17 Sep 2026
- 2026World Models for Embodied Intelligence: From Plausible to Controllable to Actionable15 Sep 2026
- 2026World-Action Models for Robot Learning and Control: A Survey13 Sep 2026
- 2026WALL-SS: Scaling Long-horizon World Models via Next-Scale Autoregression26 Aug 2026
- 2026Vid2WAM: Distilling Video Diffusion Priors into World Action Models9 Aug 2026
- 2026Not All Actions Are Equal: Rethinking Conditioning for Dexterous World Model25 Jun 2026
- 2026World Action Models: A Survey18 Jun 2026
- 2026How Should World Models Be Evaluated for Embodied Decision-Making? A Decision-Making-Centric Position13 Jun 2026
- 2026μ0: A Scalable 3D Interaction-Trace World Model11 Jun 2026
- 2026World Model for Robot Learning: A Comprehensive Survey30 Apr 2026
- 2026Human Cognition in Machines: A Unified Perspective of World Models17 Apr 2026
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