mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

GenPO++: Generative Policy Optimization with Jacobian-free Likelihood Ratios

arXiv 2606.06967 ↗First posted 5 Jun 2026cs.LGcited by 3

On the map: Deep reinforcement learning methods → RL with diffusion and flow models

Abstract (arXiv)

Generative policies provide expressive and multimodal action distributions, making them attractive for reinforcement learning (RL) in complex continuous-control tasks. Among them, flow-based policies are especially appealing because they generate actions through deterministic transport maps. However, applying such generative policies to likelihood-based on-policy learning remains limited by the difficulty of evaluating the probability of executed actions. Existing flow RL methods either replace the true action-density ratio with approximate surrogates, which can introduce biased updates, or recover exact likelihoods through dummy-action augmentation, which enlarges the policy space and increases computation. In this work, we propose GenPO++, a reversible generative policy optimization framework that uses history states as auxiliary memory in a high-order reversible ODE solver, yielding exact inversion without changing the original action dimension. The resulting generative policy map has a log-determinant determined only by fixed solver coefficients, enabling exact and Jacobian-free likelihood-ratio computation. This design preserves the expressiveness of generative flow policies while avoiding both action ratio bias and dummy-action overhead. We evaluate GenPO++ on large-scale simulated control, fine-tuning, and real-world robotic manipulation tasks, where it achieves competitive or superior performance over state-of-the-art on-policy RL methods, while improving training stability and computational efficiency.

Key facts. Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in RL with diffusion and flow models, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods. Builds on 52 of its 53 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 5 Jun 2026.

Builds on

52 of 53 references.

Closest ancestors · 11

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026Flow Policy Gradients for Robot Control2 Feb
  2. 2026PolicyFlow: Policy Optimization with Continuous Normalizing Flow in Reinforcement Learning1 Feb
  3. 2025Flow Matching Policy Gradients28 Jul
  4. 2025ReinFlow: Fine-tuning Flow Matching Policy with Online Reinforcement Learning28 May
  5. 2025GenPO: Generative Diffusion Models Meet On-Policy Reinforcement Learning24 May
  6. 2025Maximum Entropy Reinforcement Learning with Diffusion Policy17 Feb
  7. 2025DIME:Diffusion-Based Maximum Entropy Reinforcement Learning4 Feb
  8. 2024Diffusion Policy Policy Optimization1 Sep
  9. 2024Diffusion-based Reinforcement Learning via Q-weighted Variational Policy Optimization25 May
  10. 2024Diffusion Actor-Critic with Entropy Regulator24 May
  11. 2024Maximum Entropy Reinforcement Learning via Energy-Based Normalizing Flow22 May

Other references · 41

  1. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  2. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 15,215
  3. 2020Denoising Diffusion Implicit Modelscited by 9,781
  4. 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 9,122
  5. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,058
  6. 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modelingcited by 5,702
  7. 2018Neural Ordinary Differential Equationscited by 3,779
  8. 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flowcited by 3,700
  9. 2022Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Modelscited by 3,045
  10. 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusioncited by 2,838
  11. 2015Variational Inference with Normalizing Flowscited by 2,170
  12. 2016Density estimation using Real NVPcited by 2,042
29 more
  1. 2022DPM-Solver: A Fast ODE Solver for Diffusion Probabilistic Model Sampling in Around 10 Stepscited by 1,979
  2. 2018Glow: Generative Flow with Invertible 1x1 Convolutionscited by 1,545
  3. 2022Planning with Diffusion for Flexible Behavior Synthesiscited by 1,061
  4. 2014NICE: Non-linear Independent Components Estimationcited by 1,058
  5. 2023Stochastic Interpolants: A Unifying Framework for Flows and Diffusionscited by 939
  6. 2023Improving and generalizing flow-based generative models with minibatch optimal transportcited by 879
  7. 2018FFJORD: Free-form Continuous Dynamics for Scalable Reversible Generative Modelscited by 594
  8. 2022Diffusion Policies as an Expressive Policy Class for Offline Reinforcement Learningcited by 562
  9. 2022Fast Sampling of Diffusion Models with Exponential Integratorcited by 532
  10. 2022Is Conditional Generative Modeling all you need for Decision-Making?cited by 516
  11. 2023UniPC: A Unified Predictor-Corrector Framework for Fast Sampling of Diffusion Modelscited by 450
  12. 2018Invertible Residual Networkscited by 365
  13. 2023IDQL: Implicit Q-Learning as an Actor-Critic Method with Diffusion Policiescited by 325
  14. 2022EDICT: Exact Diffusion Inversion via Coupled Transformationscited by 258
  15. 2019Residual Flows for Invertible Generative Modelingcited by 257
  16. 2023Goal-Conditioned Imitation Learning using Score-based Diffusion Policiescited by 236
  17. 2025Flow Q-Learningcited by 184
  18. 2022Offline Reinforcement Learning via High-Fidelity Generative Behavior Modelingcited by 182
  19. 2023Efficient Diffusion Policies for Offline Reinforcement Learningcited by 157
  20. 2023Learning a Diffusion Model Policy from Rewards via Q-Score Matchingcited by 138
  21. 2022In-Hand Object Rotation via Rapid Motor Adaptationcited by 118
  22. 2023Policy Representation via Diffusion Probability Model for Reinforcement Learningcited by 112
  23. 2019Leveraging exploration in off-policy algorithms via normalizing flowscited by 46
  24. 2023Exact Diffusion Inversion via Bi-directional Integration Approximationcited by 44
  25. 2023Boosting Continuous Control with Consistency Policycited by 38
  26. 2024Flow Matching Imitation Learning for Multi-Support Manipulationcited by 29
  27. 2024BELM: Bidirectional Explicit Linear Multi-step Sampler for Exact Inversion in Diffusion Modelscited by 29
  28. 2018Boosting Trust Region Policy Optimization by Normalizing Flows Policycited by 11
  29. 2025Learning Dexterous Manipulation Skills from Imperfect Simulationscited by 9

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 3.

3 papers.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2024Revisiting Generative Policies: A Simpler Reinforcement Learning Algorithmic Perspective
  2. 2026Truncated Rectified Flow Policy for Reinforcement Learning with One-Step Sampling
  3. 2025One-Step Generative Policies with Q-Learning: A Reformulation of MeanFlow
  4. 2025Flow-Based Policy for Online Reinforcement Learning
  5. 2026DR-APO: Decoupled-Representation Advantage-Guided Policy Optimization from Continuous Control to Embodied Navigation
  6. 2025Decision Flow Policy Optimization
  7. 2025Offline Reinforcement Learning with Generative Trajectory Policies
  8. 2026FlowAWR: Online Adaptive Flow Reinforcement via Advantage-Weighted Rectification