NEWTON: Agentic Planning for Physically Grounded Video Generation
On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Multimodal and embodied agents
Abstract (arXiv)
Video generation models produce visually compelling results but systematically violate physical commonsense -- on VideoPhy-2, the best model achieves only 32.6% joint accuracy. We identify a specification bottleneck: text prompts are lossy compression of the physical world, omitting the parameters that fully determine dynamics, and no amount of model scaling can recover what was never specified. From this diagnosis we derive three properties that physics conditioning must satisfy -- sufficiency, dynamism, and verifiability -- and show that no existing approach satisfies all three. We present NEWTON, in which video generation is demoted from the system output to one action inside an agent's toolbox: a learned planner orchestrates physics-aware tools (keyframe generation, scientific computation, prompt refinement) to construct rich conditioning, and a verifier closes the loop for iterative re-planning. The planner is the sole trainable component, optimized on-policy via Flow-GRPO inside the live multi-turn loop. On VideoPhy-2, NEWTON improves joint accuracy from 21.4% to 29.7% on LTX-Video and from 30.7% to 37.4% on Veo-3.1, without modifying either generator. Our project page: https://Newton026.github.io/newton
Key facts. Cited by 12 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Multimodal and embodied agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 38 of its 42 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 18 May 2026.
Builds on
38 of 42 references.
Closest ancestors · 4
Same direction, newest first
- 2026Authoring for Living Worlds: Tool-Constrained LLM Agents for Executable Multi-Actor Scenarios11 Apr
- 2026M3: High-fidelity Text-to-Image Generation via Multi-Modal, Multi-Agent and Multi-Round Visual Reasoning5 Feb
- 2026GenAgent: Scaling Text-to-Image Generation via Agentic Multimodal Reasoning26 Jan
- 2025MoReGen: Multi-Agent Motion-Reasoning Engine for Code-based Text-to-Video Synthesis3 Dec
Other references · 34
- 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,695
- 2023Adding Conditional Control to Text-to-Image Diffusion Modelscited by 5,503
- 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,276
- 2023Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Toolscited by 4,182
- 2024CogVideoX: Text-to-Video Diffusion Models with An Expert Transformercited by 2,261
- 2024HunyuanVideo: A Systematic Framework For Large Video Generative Modelscited by 1,660
- 2022Inner Monologue: Embodied Reasoning through Planning with Language Modelscited by 1,081
- 2025Flow-GRPO: Training Flow Matching Models via Online RLcited by 661
- 2024LTX-Video: Realtime Video Latent Diffusioncited by 581
- 2025VBench-2.0: Advancing Video Generation Benchmark Suite for Intrinsic Faithfulnesscited by 315
- 2024VideoPhy: Evaluating Physical Commonsense for Video Generationcited by 228
- 2024How Far is Video Generation from World Model: A Physical Law Perspectivecited by 212
22 more
- 2025The Landscape of Agentic Reinforcement Learning for LLMs: A Surveycited by 205
- 2025World Simulation with Video Foundation Models for Physical AIcited by 200
- 2024Towards World Simulator: Crafting Physical Commonsense-Based Benchmark for Video Generationcited by 174
- 2025Do generative video models understand physical principles?cited by 161
- 2025VideoPhy-2: A Challenging Action-Centric Physical Commonsense Evaluation in Video Generationcited by 149
- 2025Agentic Reasoning and Tool Integration for LLMs via Reinforcement Learningcited by 110
- 2025VideoREPA: Learning Physics for Video Generation through Relational Alignment with Foundation Modelscited by 98
- 2025WISA: World Simulator Assistant for Physics-Aware Text-to-Video Generationcited by 90
- 2024PhyT2V: LLM-Guided Iterative Self-Refinement for Physics-Grounded Text-to-Video Generationcited by 80
- 2025In-the-Flow Agentic System Optimization for Effective Planning and Tool Usecited by 72
- 2024PhysMotion: Physics-Grounded Dynamics From a Single Imagecited by 45
- 2025PhysAnimator: Physics-Guided Generative Cartoon Animationcited by 42
- 2025PhysCtrl: Generative Physics for Controllable and Physics-Grounded Video Generationcited by 41
- 2025NewtonGen: Physics-Consistent and Controllable Text-to-Video Generation via Neural Newtonian Dynamicscited by 41
- 2025Video-T1: Test-Time Scaling for Video Generationcited by 40
- 2025PhyGDPO: Physics-Aware Groupwise Direct Preference Optimization for Physically Consistent Text-to-Video Generationcited by 23
- 2026Phantom: Physics-Infused Video Generation via Joint Modeling of Visual and Latent Physical Dynamicscited by 12
- 2025PhysChoreo: Physics-Controllable Video Generation with Part-Aware Semantic Groundingcited by 9
- 2026coDrawAgents: A Multi-Agent Dialogue Framework for Compositional Image Generationcited by 7
- 2026Chain of Event-Centric Causal Thought for Physically Plausible Video Generationcited by 6
- 2026PhyCo: Learning Controllable Physical Priors for Generative Motioncited by 5
- 2025PhysTalk: Language-driven Real-time Physics in 3D Gaussian Scenescited by 3
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 12.
12 papers.
- 2026Beyond Time Shifts: Adapting Omni-LLM as a Reference-Free Evaluator for Generative Audio-Visual Modelscited by 1
- 2026Agentic Visual Generation: From Generative Models to Agentic Controlcited by 1
- 2026DenseControl: Instance-Level Controllable Synthesis of Dense Crowd Imagecited by 0
- 2026SCOPE: Score-Isolated Agentic Optimization for Video World Modelscited by 0
- 2026Physically Plausible Video Generation via Visual-Semantic Chain-of-Events Conditioningcited by 0
- 2026VideoGen-Agent: Reinforcing Video Generation Agentscited by 0
- 2026MVAgent: Multi-Agent Video Generation via Consistent Condition Construction and Shot-Level Policy Optimizationcited by 0
- 2026SkillPE: Creativity-Oriented Cinematic Skill Evolution for Text-to-Video Prompt Engineeringcited by 0
- 2026Physis-Lang: Self-Evolving Language as a Physical Representation for Video World Modelcited by 0
- 2026World Models' Last Exam in Physicscited by 0
- 2026Phase-aware video generation for physics-grounded dynamics and interactionscited by 0
- 2026PhysForge: Material-Controllable 3D Reconstruction with Separable Componentscited by 0
- 2026PhysForge: Material-Controllable 3D Reconstruction with Separable Components9 Oct 2026
- 2026Phase-aware video generation for physics-grounded dynamics and interactions8 Oct 2026
- 2026World Models' Last Exam in Physics6 Oct 2026
- 2026Physis-Lang: Self-Evolving Language as a Physical Representation for Video World Model30 Sep 2026
- 2026SkillPE: Creativity-Oriented Cinematic Skill Evolution for Text-to-Video Prompt Engineering28 Sep 2026
- 2026MVAgent: Multi-Agent Video Generation via Consistent Condition Construction and Shot-Level Policy Optimization24 Sep 2026
- 2026VideoGen-Agent: Reinforcing Video Generation Agents21 Sep 2026
- 2026Agentic Visual Generation: From Generative Models to Agentic Control6 Sep 2026
- 2026Physically Plausible Video Generation via Visual-Semantic Chain-of-Events Conditioning1 Sep 2026
- 2026SCOPE: Score-Isolated Agentic Optimization for Video World Models15 Aug 2026
- 2026Beyond Time Shifts: Adapting Omni-LLM as a Reference-Free Evaluator for Generative Audio-Visual Models10 Jul 2026
- 2026DenseControl: Instance-Level Controllable Synthesis of Dense Crowd Image14 Jun 2026
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026Physics-Aware Video Generation via Agentic Planning and Graph-Guided Optimization
- 2026PhysAgent: Reflective Agentic Physics Control for Physically Plausible Video Generation
- 2026PhyPrompt: RL-based Prompt Refinement for Physically Plausible Text-to-Video Generation
- 2026SPIRAL: Self-Evolving Action-Conditioned Video Generation via Reflective Planning Agents
- 2026PhysRVG: Physics-Aware Unified Reinforcement Learning for Video Generative Models
- 2025Simulating the Visual World with Artificial Intelligence: A Roadmap
- 2024VideoAgent: Self-Improving Video Generation
- 2026Fluid-Gen-Zero: Grounding Pretrained Video Generators in Physics without Training