Action Images: End-to-End Policy Learning via Multiview Video Generation
On the map: World models → Embodied and robot world models
Abstract (arXiv)
World action models (WAMs) have emerged as a promising direction for robot policy learning, as they can leverage powerful video backbones to model the future states. However, existing approaches often rely on separate action modules, or use action representations that are not pixel-grounded, making it difficult to fully exploit the pretrained knowledge of video models and limiting transfer across viewpoints and environments. In this work, we present Action Images, a unified world action model that formulates policy learning as multiview video generation. Instead of encoding control as low-dimensional tokens, we translate 7-DoF robot actions into interpretable action images: multi-view action videos that are grounded in 2D pixels and explicitly track robot-arm motion. This pixel-grounded action representation allows the video backbone itself to act as a zero-shot policy, without a separate policy head or action module. Beyond control, the same unified model supports video-action joint generation, action-conditioned video generation, and action labeling under a shared representation. On RLBench and real-world evaluations, our model achieves the strongest zero-shot success rates and improves video-action joint generation quality over prior video-space world models, suggesting that interpretable action images are a promising route to policy learning.
Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Embodied and robot world models, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 63 of its 71 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 7 Apr 2026.
Builds on
63 of 71 references.
Closest ancestors · 11
Same direction, newest first
- 2026World Action Models are Zero-shot Policies17 Feb
- 2025Ctrl-World: A Controllable Generative World Model for Robot Manipulation11 Oct
- 2025Learning Primitive Embodied World Models: Towards Scalable Robotic Learning28 Aug
- 2025Geometry-aware 4D Video Generation for Robot Manipulation1 Jul
- 2025V-JEPA 2: Self-Supervised Video Models Enable Understanding, Prediction and Planning11 Jun
- 2025FlowDreamer: A RGB-D World Model with Flow-based Motion Representations for Robot Manipulation15 May
- 2025TesserAct: Learning 4D Embodied World Models29 Apr
- 2025Aether: Geometric-Aware Unified World Modeling24 Mar
- 2024RoboDreamer: Learning Compositional World Models for Robot Imagination18 Apr
- 20243D-VLA: A 3D Vision-Language-Action Generative World Model14 Mar
- 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusion7 Mar
Other references · 52
- 2022Classifier-Free Diffusion Guidancecited by 5,847
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- 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Controlcited by 2,407
- 2022RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scalecited by 2,061
- 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalizationcited by 1,761
- 2025VGGT: Visual Geometry Grounded Transformercited by 1,539
- 2024Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policycited by 1,484
- 2019ZeRO: Memory Optimizations Toward Training Trillion Parameter Modelscited by 1,301
- 2024WorldSimBench: Towards Video Generation Models as World Simulatorscited by 881
38 more
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- 2023BridgeData V2: A Dataset for Robot Learning at Scalecited by 657
- 2023Learning Universal Policies via Text-Guided Video Generationcited by 522
- 2022DayDreamer: World Models for Physical Robot Learningcited by 400
- 2025π*0.6: a VLA That Learns From Experiencecited by 303
- 2026Cosmos Policy: Fine-Tuning Video Models for Visuomotor Control and Planningcited by 300
- 2024Video Prediction Policy: A Generalist Robot Policy with Predictive Visual Representationscited by 289
- 2023TAPIR: Tracking Any Point with per-frame Initialization and temporal Refinementcited by 287
- 2025ReCamMaster: Camera-Controlled Generative Rendering from A Single Videocited by 287
- 2024Navigation World Modelscited by 272
- 2023Imitating Human Behaviour with Diffusion Modelscited by 263
- 2023Text-To-4D Dynamic Scene Generationcited by 205
- 2025Unified Video Action Modelcited by 205
- 2025World Simulation with Video Foundation Models for Physical AIcited by 200
- 2025MolmoAct: Action Reasoning Models that can Reason in Spacecited by 197
- 2023DreamGaussian4D: Generative 4D Gaussian Splattingcited by 194
- 20234D-fy: Text-to-4D Generation Using Hybrid Score Distillation Samplingcited by 185
- 2023Learning to Act from Actionless Videos through Dense Correspondencescited by 164
- 2024Tora: Trajectory-oriented Diffusion Transformer for Video Generationcited by 164
- 2024CAT4D: Create Anything in 4D with Multi-View Video Diffusion Modelscited by 161
- 2024SV4D: Dynamic 3D Content Generation with Multi-Frame and Multi-View Consistencycited by 144
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- 2024THE COLOSSEUM: A Benchmark for Evaluating Generalization for Robotic Manipulationcited by 133
- 2023Distilled Feature Fields Enable Few-Shot Language-Guided Manipulationcited by 130
- 2024Steering Your Generalists: Improving Robotic Foundation Models via Value Guidancecited by 106
- 20244Diffusion: Multi-view Video Diffusion Model for 4D Generationcited by 104
- 2025Geometry Forcing: Marrying Video Diffusion and 3D Representation for Consistent World Modelingcited by 96
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- 2018Robot Learning in Homes: Improving Generalization and Reducing Dataset Biascited by 75
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- 2025Robotic World Model: A Neural Network Simulator for Robust Policy Optimization in Roboticscited by 51
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- 2025Shortcut Learning in Generalist Robot Policies: The Role of Dataset Diversity and Fragmentationcited by 31
- 2025Diffuman4D: 4D Consistent Human View Synthesis from Sparse-View Videos with Spatio-Temporal Diffusion Modelscited by 17
50 most cited of 52 All 52 (JSON)
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 12.
12 papers.
- 20264D-WAM: Infusing Spatiotemporal Awareness into World Action Models through Trajectory Fieldscited by 13
- 2026World Action Models: A Surveycited by 12
- 2026World-Action Models for Robot Learning and Control: A Surveycited by 6
- 2026EA-WM: Event-Aware Generative World Model with Structured Kinematic-to-Visual Action Fieldscited by 5
- 2026iMaC: Translating Actions into Motion and Contact Images for Embodied World Modelscited by 2
- 2026SWEET: Sparse World Modeling with Image Editing for Embodied Task Executioncited by 1
- 2026XPACE: Joint World and Action Modeling from Heterogeneous Experiencecited by 1
- 2026An Action Is Worth One Patch: Unified World-Action Modeling with PatchWAMcited by 0
- 2026Revision, Not Restart: Revisable Visual Plans for Closed-Loop World-Action Modelscited by 0
- 2026WorldLine: Action-Driven Visual Simulation for Robotic Manipulationcited by 0
- 2026XGenAct: Geometry-Enhanced World Action Models through Cross-Task Generationcited by 0
- 2026KineWorld: Action-Induced Transport Fields for Embodied World Modelingcited by 0
- 2026KineWorld: Action-Induced Transport Fields for Embodied World Modeling5 Oct 2026
- 2026XGenAct: Geometry-Enhanced World Action Models through Cross-Task Generation2 Oct 2026
- 2026WorldLine: Action-Driven Visual Simulation for Robotic Manipulation29 Sep 2026
- 2026Revision, Not Restart: Revisable Visual Plans for Closed-Loop World-Action Models28 Sep 2026
- 2026An Action Is Worth One Patch: Unified World-Action Modeling with PatchWAM22 Sep 2026
- 2026XPACE: Joint World and Action Modeling from Heterogeneous Experience15 Sep 2026
- 2026World-Action Models for Robot Learning and Control: A Survey13 Sep 2026
- 20264D-WAM: Infusing Spatiotemporal Awareness into World Action Models through Trajectory Fields8 Aug 2026
- 2026World Action Models: A Survey18 Jun 2026
- 2026iMaC: Translating Actions into Motion and Contact Images for Embodied World Models8 Jun 2026
- 2026SWEET: Sparse World Modeling with Image Editing for Embodied Task Execution19 May 2026
- 2026EA-WM: Event-Aware Generative World Model with Structured Kinematic-to-Visual Action Fields7 May 2026
Similar, not cited
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- 2026GigaWorld-Policy: An Efficient Action-Centered World--Action Model
- 2026GigaWorld-Policy-0.5: A Faster and Stronger WAM Empowered by AutoResearch
- 2026Vid2WAM: Distilling Video Diffusion Priors into World Action Models
- 2026DeVA: Decoupled Video-Action Model with physical guidance for robot policy learning
- 2026InternW0-Δ: A World Action Model Bridging Predictive Dynamics and Actions with 20K+ Hours of Open Data
- 2026Native Action-Prior Learning from Videos for World Action Models
- 2025CoVAR: Co-generation of Video and Action for Robotic Manipulation via Multi-Modal Diffusion
- 2026World2Act: Latent Action Post-Training from World Model Dynamics