# FurnitureVLA: Learning Long-Horizon Bimanual Furniture Assembly with Vision-Language-Action Model

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.01212 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.01212/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Generalist VLA models and benchmarks, one of 13 directions in Vision-language-action models.
- Builds on 35 of its 48 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 1 Jul 2026.

## Placed in

- Vision-language-action models / [Generalist VLA models and benchmarks](https://mlsanity.com/vla/generalist-vla-models-and-benchmarks/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 35)

- [OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09246/) (2024)
- [π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.16054/) (2025)
- [Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardware](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.13705/) (2023)
- [LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.03310/) (2023)
- [GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.14734/) (2025)
- [Isaac Gym: High Performance GPU-Based Physics Simulation For Robot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.10470/) (2021)
- [DROID: A Large-Scale In-The-Wild Robot Manipulation Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.12945/) (2024)
- [FAST: Efficient Action Tokenization for Vision-Language-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.09747/) (2025)
- [CALVIN: A Benchmark for Language-Conditioned Policy Learning for Long-Horizon Robot Manipulation Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.03227/) (2021)
- [RoboCasa: Large-Scale Simulation of Everyday Tasks for Generalist Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.02523/) (2024)
- [Robotic Control via Embodied Chain-of-Thought Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.08693/) (2024)
- [Hi Robot: Open-Ended Instruction Following with Hierarchical Vision-Language-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19417/) (2025)
- [FurnitureBench: Reproducible Real-World Benchmark for Long-Horizon Complex Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.12821/) (2023)
- [From Imitation to Refinement -- Residual RL for Precise Assembly](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.16677/) (2024)
- [IKEA Furniture Assembly Environment for Long-Horizon Complex Manipulation Tasks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.07246/) (2019)
- [RoboArena: Distributed Real-World Evaluation of Generalist Robot Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.18123/) (2025)
- [SpatialPIN: Enhancing Spatial Reasoning Capabilities of Vision-Language Models through Prompting and Interacting 3D Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.13438/) (2024)
- [IndustReal: Transferring Contact-Rich Assembly Tasks from Simulation to Reality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.17110/) (2023)
- [Long-VLA: Unleashing Long-Horizon Capability of Vision Language Action Model for Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.19958/) (2025)
- [JUICER: Data-Efficient Imitation Learning for Robotic Assembly](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.03729/) (2024)
- [FORGE: Force-Guided Exploration for Robust Contact-Rich Manipulation under Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.04587/) (2024)
- [Efficient Sim-to-real Transfer of Contact-Rich Manipulation Skills with Online Admittance Residual Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10509/) (2023)
- [Manual2Skill: Learning to Read Manuals and Acquire Robotic Skills for Furniture Assembly Using Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.10090/) (2025)
- [CycleVLA: Proactive Self-Correcting Vision-Language-Action Models via Subtask Backtracking and Minimum Bayes Risk Decoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.02295/) (2026)
- [LiLo-VLA: Compositional Long-Horizon Manipulation via Linked Object-Centric Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.21531/) (2026)
- [VT-Refine: Learning Bimanual Assembly with Visuo-Tactile Feedback via Simulation Fine-Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.14930/) (2025)
- [ARCH: Hierarchical Hybrid Learning for Long-Horizon Contact-Rich Robotic Assembly](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.16451/) (2024)
- [SeqVLA: Sequential Task Execution for Long-Horizon Manipulation with Completion-Aware Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.14138/) (2025)
- [Openpi Comet: Competition Solution For 2025 BEHAVIOR Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.10071/) (2025)
- [Fabrica: Dual-Arm Assembly of General Multi-Part Objects via Integrated Planning and Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05168/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [TAO-DA: Towards Autonomous Operation--A Dual-Arm Vision-Language-Action Model for Coordinated Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.33197/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Current work on robot furniture assembly mostly focuses on toy-scale settings or single-arm manipulation. We introduce FurnitureVLA, the first systematic study of real-scale bimanual furniture assembly using Vision-Language-Action models (VLAs). We formalize the task, develop a scalable simulation pipeline for expert data generation and evaluation, and build a VR teleoperation system for single-operator bimanual control to collect high-quality real-world demonstrations. To address extreme long-horizon assembly with up to 7 subtasks and 1550 control steps, we propose a progress-enhanced VLA, finetuned on semantically grounded subtasks, that jointly predicts actions and a continuous progress signal, enabling automatic subtask transitions and reducing compounding errors during inference. We further study perception and control design factors that critically affect precision in real-scale assembly. FurnitureVLA improves average simulation success from 48% to 80% compared to baselines across three furniture types, with an additional 21% gain from our design factor study. We validate on a real Kinova Gen3 platform with only 16% drop on the hardest task.