mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

ENPIRE: Agentic Robot Policy Self-Improvement in the Real World

arXiv 2606.19980 ↗First posted 18 Jun 2026cs.AIcited by 31

On the map: LLM agents and tool use → Multimodal and embodied agents

Abstract (arXiv)

Achieving dexterous robotic manipulation in the real world heavily relies on human supervision and algorithm engineering, which becomes a central bottleneck in the pursuit of general physical intelligence. Although emerging coding agents can generate code to automate algorithm search, their successes remain largely confined in digital environments. We conjecture that the missing abstraction to automate robotics research is a repeatable feedback loop for real-world policy improvement: reset the scene, execute a policy, verify the outcome, and refine the next iteration. To bridge this gap, we introduce ENPIRE, a harness framework for coding agents that instantiates this physical feedback routine with four core modules: an Environment module (EN) for automatic reset and verification, a Policy Improvement module (PI) that launches policy refinement, a Rollout module (R) to evaluate policies with one or multiple physical robots operating in parallel, and an Evolution module (E) in which coding agents analyze logs, consult literature, improve training infrastructure and algorithm code to address failure modes. This closed-loop system transforms real-world manipulation learning into a controllable optimization procedure, minimizing human effort while allowing fair ablations across training recipe and agent variants. Powered by ENPIRE, frontier coding agents can autonomously train a policy to achieve a 99% success rate on challenging, dexterous manipulation tasks, such as organizing a pin box, fastening a zip tie, and tool use, a process that further accelerates when we dispatch an agent team on a robot fleet. Our results suggest a practical and scalable path toward deploying coding agents to autonomously advancing robotics in the physical world.

Key facts. Cited by 31 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Multimodal and embodied agents, one of 16 directions in LLM agents and tool use. Builds on 37 of its 51 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 18 Jun 2026.

Builds on

37 of 51 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026CaP-X: A Framework for Benchmarking and Improving Coding Agents for Robot Manipulation23 Mar
  2. 2024AutoRT: Embodied Foundation Models for Large Scale Orchestration of Robotic Agents23 Jan

Other references · 35

  1. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,355
  2. 2023Toolformer: Language Models Can Teach Themselves to Use Toolscited by 4,072
  3. 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,064
  4. 2023Self-Refine: Iterative Refinement with Self-Feedbackcited by 3,317
  5. 2023SWE-bench: Can Language Models Resolve Real-World GitHub Issues?cited by 3,193
  6. 2023Tree of Thoughts: Deliberate Problem Solving with Large Language Modelscited by 3,155
  7. 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusioncited by 2,730
  8. 2022Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordancescited by 2,302
  9. 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,081
  10. 2022RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scalecited by 2,007
  11. 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalizationcited by 1,653
  12. 2022Code as Policies: Language Model Programs for Embodied Controlcited by 1,172
23 more
  1. 2025GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robotscited by 1,167
  2. 2024The AI Scientist: Towards Fully Automated Open-Ended Scientific Discoverycited by 1,002
  3. 2023ChemCrow: Augmenting large-language models with chemistry toolscited by 609
  4. 2022ProgPrompt: Generating Situated Robot Task Plans using Large Language Modelscited by 598
  5. 2023ViperGPT: Visual Inference via Python Execution for Reasoningcited by 591
  6. 2023Eureka: Human-Level Reward Design via Coding Large Language Modelscited by 542
  7. 2024Executable Code Actions Elicit Better LLM Agentscited by 537
  8. 2024MLE-bench: Evaluating Machine Learning Agents on Machine Learning Engineeringcited by 429
  9. 2025Agent Laboratory: Using LLM Agents as Research Assistantscited by 405
  10. 2025The AI Scientist-v2: Workshop-Level Automated Scientific Discovery via Agentic Tree Searchcited by 375
  11. 2023Efficient Online Reinforcement Learning with Offline Datacited by 332
  12. 2023Language to Rewards for Robotic Skill Synthesiscited by 307
  13. 2025π*0.6: a VLA That Learns From Experiencecited by 280
  14. 2023RoboGen: Towards Unleashing Infinite Data for Automated Robot Learning via Generative Simulationcited by 206
  15. 2018Learning to Walk via Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 153
  16. 2023Text2Reward: Reward Shaping with Language Models for Reinforcement Learningcited by 153
  17. 2024Precise and Dexterous Robotic Manipulation via Human-in-the-Loop Reinforcement Learningcited by 153
  18. 2024SERL: A Software Suite for Sample-Efficient Robotic Reinforcement Learningcited by 113
  19. 2024DrEureka: Language Model Guided Sim-To-Real Transfercited by 78
  20. 2025Self-Improving Vision-Language-Action Models with Data Generation via Residual RLcited by 72
  21. 2026RoboCasa365: A Large-Scale Simulation Framework for Training and Benchmarking Generalist Robotscited by 65
  22. 2025AgentRxiv: Towards Collaborative Autonomous Researchcited by 64
  23. 2025RL-100: Performant Robotic Manipulation with Real-World Reinforcement Learningcited by 47

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 31.

31 papers.

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By area:

  1. 2026Towards the Harness of Embodied Agentscited by 7
  2. 2026The Last AI Built by Humans: Toward Genuine Recursive Self-Improvementcited by 5
  3. 2026InSight: Self-Guided Skill Acquisition via Steerable VLAscited by 2
  4. 2026Agora: Git as Shared Memory for Collective AutoResearchcited by 2
  5. 2026EmbodiedSWE: Coding Agents for Long Horizon Dexterous Roboticscited by 2
  6. 2026You Don't Need To Stay in The Loop: An Agentic Robotics Loop for Robot-Policy Improvementcited by 1
  7. 2026RACaP: Agentic Reasoning, Acting, and Coding as Policies for Evolvable Robot Learningcited by 1
  8. 2026RLE-Bench: A Qualifying Exam for Coding Agents as Robot Learning Engineerscited by 1
  9. 2026Reconstruct, Practice, Go Real: Guided Self-Improvement for Embodied Agentscited by 1
  10. 2026Behavior Foundations for Quadruped Robots: ABot-C0 Technical Reportcited by 0
  11. 2026Weights or Skills? A Survey of Robot-Learning Techniques: from Action-Predicting Weights to Robots that Write their Own Skillscited by 0
  12. 2026ReForge: Keeping ABR Algorithms Never Finished with Verified Large Language Model Editscited by 0
19 more
  1. 2026SUN: Agentic Robot Policy Learning with Persistent Task Programscited by 0
  2. 2026Continual Field-Adaptive Models (CFAMs) for Post-Deployment Physical AIcited by 0
  3. 2026WetRobo: A Reproducible Robot Kit for Coding Agents in Biological Laboratoriescited by 0
  4. 2026From Rollout to Reset: A Graph-Based Harness for Autonomous Long-Horizon Manipulation Evaluationcited by 0
  5. 2026StageGuard: Learning Stage Transitions for Long-Horizon Robot Tasks via Agentic Distillationcited by 0
  6. 2026Coding Agents with an Obstacle-Aware Harness for Safe Robot Manipulationcited by 0
  7. 2026ARSTAG: An Agentic Real2Sim2Real System for Task-Specific Robot Data Generationcited by 0
  8. 2026Uncertainty-Gated Exploration Noise Suppresses Task Collapse in Online RL Fine-Tuning of a Flow-Matching Vision-Language-Action Policycited by 0
  9. 2026RAPID: Robot Agentic Programming from Demonstrationscited by 0
  10. 2026What Stops Recursive Self-Improvement in Robotics? Lessons from 123 Rounds of Agentic Skill Discoverycited by 0
  11. 2026RoboFoundry: System-as-Policy Evolution for Self-Learning Embodied Agentscited by 0
  12. 2026EMPIRIC: Experiment-Driven Learning of Residual World Models for Robot Planningcited by 0
  13. 2026Self-Evolving Coding Agents: From Digital Programs to Physical-World Intelligencecited by 0
  14. 2026Scale and Selection: What Makes Automatic Harness Evolution Work for Visual-Interface Robot Agentscited by 0
  15. 2026DynaHarness: A Dynamic Physical Harness for Self-Evolving Robot Agentscited by 0
  16. 2026Iterative Policy Refinement through Semantic Rollout Analysiscited by 0
  17. 2026InterEvolve: Test-Time Evolution of Reward Programs for Humanoid Loco-Manipulationcited by 0
  18. 2026Agentic RSR: Real-to-Sim-to-Real through Scene Reconstruction and Execution-Grounded Robot Policiescited by 0
  19. 2026RoboRSI: Stable, efficient, and reusable robot self-evolution in complex real-world environmentscited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Nautilus: From One Prompt to Plug-and-Play Robot Learning
  2. 2026Learning and Transferring Closed-Loop Robot Software
  3. 2026ASPIRE: Agentic /Skills Discovery for Robotics
  4. 2026EmbodiRSI: Recursive Self-Improvement for Data-Efficient Robot Adaptation ↗
  5. 2026Zetta zeta: An Efficient Closed-Loop Embodied Harness for Self-Evolving Physical Intelligence
  6. 2026Act-Observe-Rewrite: Multimodal Coding Agents as In-Context Policy Learners for Robot Manipulation
  7. 2026RHO: Your Coding Agent is Secretly a Roboticist
  8. 2026Find Something You Can't Do: Agentic Real-World Reinforcement Learning for Self-Improving VLA Models