mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Visual Verification Enables Inference-time Steering and Autonomous Policy Improvement

arXiv 2606.18247 ↗First posted 16 Jun 2026cs.RO cs.AIcited by 1

On the map: Vision-language-action models → Reinforcement learning and post-training

Abstract (arXiv)

Robots deployed in the real world should learn from their experience and improve over time. This requires a mechanism of practicing and learning from feedback. In this paper, we propose VERITAS, a generator-verifier framework for generalist robot policies for inference-time policy steering and self-improvement. We use a pre-trained generalist robot policy as a ``generator'' and pair it with a gradient-free ``visual verifier'' that evaluates actions at inference time. This framework enables inference-time steering that improves policy performance without additional training. We demonstrate that inference-time verification consistently outperforms vanilla generalists without training on additional demonstration data. Additionally, we demonstrate that the verified rollouts provide effective supervision for offline policy improvement: policies fine-tuned on verified self-generated trajectories achieve consistent performance gains. Notably, we find that post-training with verified rollouts achieves comparable efficiency to expert demonstrations, while requiring no human interventions. Our results highlight inference-time verification as a practical and scalable mechanism for improving robotic policies during deployment.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning and post-training, one of 13 directions in Vision-language-action models. Builds on 41 of its 49 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 16 Jun 2026.

Builds on

41 of 49 references.

Closest ancestors · 1

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024Steering Your Generalists: Improving Robotic Foundation Models via Value Guidance17 Oct

Other references · 40

  1. 2021Training Verifiers to Solve Math Word Problemscited by 9,743
  2. 2025Gemini 2.5: Pushing the Frontier with Advanced Reasoning, Multimodality, Long Context, and Next Generation Agentic Capabilitiescited by 3,655
  3. 2023Let's Verify Step by Stepcited by 3,598
  4. 2023Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Modelscited by 3,155
  5. 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Controlcited by 2,993
  6. 2024SAM 2: Segment Anything in Images and Videoscited by 2,784
  7. 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 2,777
  8. 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusioncited by 2,730
  9. 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalizationcited by 1,653
  10. 2023Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardwarecited by 1,490
  11. 2025GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robotscited by 1,167
  12. 2024Grounded SAM: Assembling Open-World Models for Diverse Visual Taskscited by 914
28 more
  1. 2024DROID: A Large-Scale In-The-Wild Robot Manipulation Datasetcited by 801
  2. 2024RDT-1B: a Diffusion Foundation Model for Bimanual Manipulationcited by 670
  3. 2023BridgeData V2: A Dataset for Robot Learning at Scalecited by 634
  4. 2024Evaluating Real-World Robot Manipulation Policies in Simulationcited by 484
  5. 2025CoT-VLA: Visual Chain-of-Thought Reasoning for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 440
  6. 2024Robotic Control via Embodied Chain-of-Thought Reasoningcited by 340
  7. 2018HG-DAgger: Interactive Imitation Learning with Human Expertscited by 245
  8. 2025MolmoAct: Action Reasoning Models that can Reason in Spacecited by 189
  9. 2024PIVOT: Iterative Visual Prompting Elicits Actionable Knowledge for VLMscited by 187
  10. 2022GNM: A General Navigation Model to Drive Any Robotcited by 161
  11. 2024Precise and Dexterous Robotic Manipulation via Human-in-the-Loop Reinforcement Learningcited by 153
  12. 2025A Careful Examination of Large Behavior Models for Multitask Dexterous Manipulationcited by 125
  13. 2022Robot Learning on the Job: Human-in-the-Loop Autonomy and Learning During Deploymentcited by 101
  14. 2025S*: Test Time Scaling for Code Generationcited by 95
  15. 2018Shared Autonomy via Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 65
  16. 2025RoboMonkey: Scaling Test-Time Sampling and Verification for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 56
  17. 2025From Foresight to Forethought: VLM-In-the-Loop Policy Steering via Latent Alignmentcited by 51
  18. 2015Shared Autonomy via Hindsight Optimizationcited by 46
  19. 2019Leveraging Human Guidance for Deep Reinforcement Learning Taskscited by 42
  20. 2025RaC: Robot Learning for Long-Horizon Tasks by Scaling Recovery and Correctioncited by 35
  21. 2025OmniVLA: An Omni-Modal Vision-Language-Action Model for Robot Navigationcited by 34
  22. 2025Compliant Residual DAgger: Improving Real-World Contact-Rich Manipulation with Human Correctionscited by 25
  23. 2025Do What You Say: Steering Vision-Language-Action Models via Runtime Reasoning-Action Alignment Verificationcited by 25
  24. 2026Scaling Verification Can Be More Effective than Scaling Policy Learning for Vision-Language-Action Alignmentcited by 15
  25. 2024How Generalizable Is My Behavior Cloning Policy? A Statistical Approach to Trustworthy Performance Evaluationcited by 14
  26. 2024STEER: Flexible Robotic Manipulation via Dense Language Groundingcited by 13
  27. 2026MolmoSpaces: A Large-Scale Open Ecosystem for Robot Navigation and Manipulationcited by 11
  28. 2026When to Act, Ask, or Learn: Uncertainty-Aware Policy Steeringcited by 4

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.

1 paper.

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  1. 2026RoboIRS: Inference-Time Internal Representation Steering for Generalist Robot Policies
  2. 2025Steering Robots with Inference-Time Interactions
  3. 2026Learning to Act While Waiting: RL Finetuning of Generalist Robot Policies Under Inference Latency
  4. 2026Proxy Policy Steering ↗
  5. 2026RoboWorld: Fast and Reliable Neural Simulators for Generalist Robot Policy Evaluation
  6. 2026VLS: Steering Pretrained Robot Policies via Vision-Language Models
  7. 2026Looking Back to Move Forward: Temporal Verification for Generative Robot Policies
  8. 2025Inference-Time Enhancement of Generative Robot Policies via Predictive World Modeling