mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Curvature-Adaptive Consistency Flow Matching: Autonomous Trajectory Optimization via Reinforcement Learning

arXiv 2606.22394 ↗First posted 21 Jun 2026cs.CVcited by 4

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

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Abstract (arXiv)

Consistency distillation has significantly accelerated diffusion-model inference, but its sampling dynamics remain underexplored. We reveal an asymmetry: although Logit-Normal sampling priors work well for standard iterative generation, consistency distillation exhibits a different difficulty profile (e.g., U-shaped), with optimization bottlenecks concentrated at the boundary stages rather than intermediate steps. To address the limitations of static sampling under evolving learning demands, we propose Curvature-Adaptive Consistency Flow Matching (CACFM). By formulating distillation as a dynamic decision process, CACFM uses a lightweight reinforcement learning agent to probe Probability Flow ODE trajectories and construct an efficiency-oriented curriculum that prioritizes critical regions without manual scheduling. Combined with Flow-adapted DMD and adversarial consistency objectives, our RL-based scheduler achieves state-of-the-art results on large-scale models such as FLUX and SDXL, mitigating structural deformities and preserving high-frequency details in extreme few-step regimes.

Key facts. Cited by 4 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Diffusion and flow policies for robotics, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 59 of its 74 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 21 Jun 2026.

Builds on

59 of 74 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2024RL for Consistency Models: Faster Reward Guided Text-to-Image Generation25 Mar
  2. 2023Diffusion Model Alignment Using Direct Preference Optimization21 Nov
  3. 2023DPOK: Reinforcement Learning for Fine-tuning Text-to-Image Diffusion Models25 May

Other references · 56

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 60,361
  2. 2015Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognitioncited by 52,096
  3. 2021Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervisioncited by 33,744
  4. 2020Language Models are Few-Shot Learnerscited by 32,419
  5. 2020An Image is Worth 16x16 Words: Transformers for Image Recognition at Scalecited by 30,186
  6. 2020Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Modelscited by 21,076
  7. 2015Distilling the Knowledge in a Neural Networkcited by 10,324
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  9. 2020Score-Based Generative Modeling through Stochastic Differential Equationscited by 9,122
  10. 2015Deep Unsupervised Learning using Nonequilibrium Thermodynamicscited by 7,058
  11. 2022Flow Matching for Generative Modelingcited by 5,702
  12. 2022Generative Adversarial Networkscited by 5,627
38 more
  1. 2023SDXL: Improving Latent Diffusion Models for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,356
  2. 2024Scaling Rectified Flow Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesiscited by 4,181
  3. 2022LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text modelscited by 4,152
  4. 2022Flow Straight and Fast: Learning to Generate and Transfer Data with Rectified Flowcited by 3,700
  5. 2022Elucidating the Design Space of Diffusion-Based Generative Modelscited by 3,045
  6. 2022DPM-Solver: A Fast ODE Solver for Diffusion Probabilistic Model Sampling in Around 10 Stepscited by 1,979
  7. 2023Consistency Modelscited by 1,822
  8. 2021Conceptual 12M: Pushing Web-Scale Image-Text Pre-Training To Recognize Long-Tail Visual Conceptscited by 1,216
  9. 2023ImageReward: Learning and Evaluating Human Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 1,045
  10. 2023One-step Diffusion with Distribution Matching Distillationcited by 1,019
  11. 2022Building Normalizing Flows with Stochastic Interpolantscited by 995
  12. 2023Pick-a-Pic: An Open Dataset of User Preferences for Text-to-Image Generationcited by 977
  13. 2023Human Preference Score v2: A Solid Benchmark for Evaluating Human Preferences of Text-to-Image Synthesiscited by 890
  14. 2023Latent Consistency Models: Synthesizing High-Resolution Images with Few-Step Inferencecited by 846
  15. 2023Consistency Trajectory Models: Learning Probability Flow ODE Trajectory of Diffusioncited by 459
  16. 2023Improved Techniques for Training Consistency Modelscited by 439
  17. 2023InstaFlow: One Step is Enough for High-Quality Diffusion-Based Text-to-Image Generationcited by 395
  18. 2024SDXL-Lightning: Progressive Adversarial Diffusion Distillationcited by 266
  19. 2024Hyper-SD: Trajectory Segmented Consistency Model for Efficient Image Synthesiscited by 156
  20. 2025SANA-Sprint: One-Step Diffusion with Continuous-Time Consistency Distillationcited by 87
  21. 2024Phased Consistency Modelscited by 85
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  30. 2025AMMKD: Adaptive Multimodal Multi-teacher Distillation for Lightweight Vision-Language Modelscited by 14
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  33. 2026Render-in-the-Loop: Vector Graphics Generation via Visual Self-Feedbackcited by 12
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  38. 2023Generalization Ability of Wide Residual Networkscited by 5

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Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 4.

4 papers.

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Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026A Survey of Flow Matching in Reinforcement Learning
  2. 2026Precise: SDE-Consistent Stochastic Sampling for RL Post-Training of Flow-Matching Models
  3. 2026Dual-End Consistency Model
  4. 2025Accelerating Diffusion Planners in Offline RL via Reward-Aware Consistency Trajectory Distillation
  5. 2025Controllable Flow Matching for Online Reinforcement Learning
  6. 2026TMPO: Trajectory Matching Policy Optimization for Diverse and Efficient Diffusion Alignment
  7. 2025Consistency Trajectory Planning: High-Quality and Efficient Trajectory Optimization for Offline Model-Based Reinforcement Learning
  8. 2026Isokinetic Flow Matching for Pathwise Straightening of Generative Flows