mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Trajectory-Consistent Flow Matching for Robust Visuomotor Policy Learning

arXiv 2605.08511 ↗First posted 8 May 2026cs.ROcited by 0

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

Abstract (arXiv)

Flow matching policies learn continuous velocity fields that transport noise to actions, enabling fast deterministic inference for robot manipulation. However, standard training optimizes a pointwise velocity objective while inference requires numerical integration of that field -- a mismatch that causes compounding trajectory errors. We propose four complementary remedies: (1) auxiliary rectified flow velocity regression that provides uniform temporal supervision across the full time interval; (2) multi-step trajectory consistency training that supervises the integrated displacement of the velocity field over trajectory segments, directly closing the train-inference gap; (3) velocity field regularization that enforces temporal smoothness, preventing oscillations that destabilize integration; and (4) fourth-order Runge-Kutta (RK4) inference that reduces global discretization error by orders of magnitude over Euler methods. Critically, these components are not independently sufficient -- RK4 without a smooth velocity field fails, and smoothness without trajectory-level supervision still drifts, as our ablation study confirms. We further pair these with a dual-view 3D point cloud encoder using two independent PointNet encoders for complementary spatial perception. On four real-robot tasks across a Franka arm and a Boston Dynamics Spot, our method achieves 70% and 60% overall success on two long-horizon multi-phase tasks where both baselines score 0%, and reaches 100% on precision tool placement. Three MetaWorld simulation tasks confirm consistent improvements, validating that trajectory-level supervision is essential for reliable policy execution.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Diffusion and flow policies for robotics, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 24 of its 29 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 8 May 2026.

Builds on

24 of 29 references.

Closest ancestors · 6

Same direction, newest first

  1. 20253D Flow Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Generating Flow in 3D Space23 Sep
  2. 2024FlowPolicy: Enabling Fast and Robust 3D Flow-based Policy via Consistency Flow Matching for Robot Manipulation6 Dec
  3. 2024Learning Robotic Manipulation Policies from Point Clouds with Conditional Flow Matching11 Sep
  4. 2024ManiCM: Real-time 3D Diffusion Policy via Consistency Model for Robotic Manipulation3 Jun
  5. 2024Consistency Policy: Accelerated Visuomotor Policies via Consistency Distillation13 May
  6. 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusion7 Mar

Other references · 18

  1. 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modelingcited by 5,426
  2. 2016PointNet: Deep Learning on Point Sets for 3D Classification and Segmentationcited by 5,223
  3. 2024Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,094
  4. 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flowcited by 3,550
  5. 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Controlcited by 2,297
  6. 2017FiLM: Visual Reasoning with a General Conditioning Layercited by 2,286
  7. 2022DPM-Solver: A Fast ODE Solver for Diffusion Probabilistic Model Sampling in Around 10 Stepscited by 1,961
  8. 2023Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardwarecited by 1,490
  9. 2019Meta-World: A Benchmark and Evaluation for Multi-Task and Meta Reinforcement Learningcited by 1,168
  10. 2022Building Normalizing Flows with Stochastic Interpolantscited by 964
  11. 2023Consistency Trajectory Models: Learning Probability Flow ODE Trajectory of Diffusioncited by 448
  12. 2021Implicit Behavioral Cloningcited by 442
6 more
  1. 2023InstaFlow: One Step is Enough for High-Quality Diffusion-Based Text-to-Image Generationcited by 387
  2. 2023DPM-Solver-v3: Improved Diffusion ODE Solver with Empirical Model Statisticscited by 161
  3. 2024Consistency Flow Matching: Defining Straight Flows with Velocity Consistencycited by 101
  4. 2024Multistep Consistency Modelscited by 67
  5. 2024AdaFlow: Imitation Learning with Variance-Adaptive Flow-Based Policiescited by 50
  6. 2024Flow Matching Imitation Learning for Multi-Support Manipulationcited by 29

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  1. 2026KAN We Flow? Advancing Robotic Manipulation with 3D Flow Matching via KAN & RWKV
  2. 2026Flowing With Purpose: Latent Action Guided Flow Matching Policies For Robotic Manipulation
  3. 2025Learning Generalizable Visuomotor Policy through Dynamics-Alignment
  4. 2024Fast and Robust Visuomotor Riemannian Flow Matching Policy
  5. 2026FocalPolicy: Frequency-Optimized Chunking and Locally Anchored Flow Matching for Coherent Visuomotor Policy
  6. 2026High-Fidelity One-Step Generative Visuomotor Policy via Recursive Correction, Frequency Consistency, and Contrastive Flow Matching
  7. 2025MP1: MeanFlow Tames Policy Learning in 1-step for Robotic Manipulation
  8. 2026Faster Visuomotor Policy Learning on Action Manifolds via Riemannian MeanFlow