mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

SUN: Agentic Robot Policy Learning with Persistent Task Programs

arXiv 2608.31167 ↗First posted 31 Aug 2026cs.RO cs.AIcited by 1

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Abstract (arXiv)

Model-based control can directly execute specified objectives, while learning can amortize such behaviors into reactive policies, making their combination a natural solution to multi-stage manipulation. We introduce Semantically UNified (SUN) Programs, typed executables that compile grounded relations into aligned optimal control objectives, satisfaction predicates, and learning rewards. Our harness, Kuafu, equips a foundation model as a task-level agent to orchestrate scene preparation, verification, residual RL, and data production. The agent uses program feedback to repair candidate programs and training diagnostics to calibrate relative reward weights, retaining accepted task semantics across tool calls. Across nine multi-stage manipulation tasks, Kuafu achieves 82.03% average success rate, significantly outperforming all learned baselines. Its learned controllers generate demonstrations at 10.57x the human-teleoperation rate, yielding data that improve visualpolicy success by 23.6 percentage points over the strongest baseline. The policies transfer zero-shot to physical Franka and Kinova robots, demonstrating sim-to-real generalization.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Builds on 39 of its 61 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 31 Aug 2026.

Builds on

39 of 61 references.

References · 39

  1. 2022Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordancescited by 2,348
  2. 2023Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardwarecited by 1,568
  3. 2022Code as Policies: Language Model Programs for Embodied Controlcited by 1,210
  4. 2022Inner Monologue: Embodied Reasoning through Planning with Language Modelscited by 1,081
  5. 2023VoxPoser: Composable 3D Value Maps for Robotic Manipulation with Language Modelscited by 750
  6. 2022ProgPrompt: Generating Situated Robot Task Plans using Large Language Modelscited by 611
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  11. 2023MimicGen: A Data Generation System for Scalable Robot Learning using Human Demonstrationscited by 327
  12. 2024ReKep: Spatio-Temporal Reasoning of Relational Keypoint Constraints for Robotic Manipulationcited by 315
27 more
  1. 2023Language to Rewards for Robotic Skill Synthesiscited by 312
  2. 2018Residual Reinforcement Learning for Robot Controlcited by 274
  3. 2023RoboGen: Towards Unleashing Infinite Data for Automated Robot Learning via Generative Simulationcited by 218
  4. 2023Text2Reward: Reward Shaping with Language Models for Reinforcement Learningcited by 160
  5. 2024Assisting in Writing Wikipedia-like Articles From Scratch with Large Language Modelscited by 154
  6. 2024UFO: A UI-Focused Agent for Windows OS Interactioncited by 148
  7. 2024FlowPolicy: Enabling Fast and Robust 3D Flow-based Policy via Consistency Flow Matching for Robot Manipulationcited by 104
  8. 2024DrEureka: Language Model Guided Sim-To-Real Transfercited by 83
  9. 2025ReWiND: Language-Guided Rewards Teach Robot Policies without New Demonstrationscited by 60
  10. 2025OmniManip: Towards General Robotic Manipulation via Object-Centric Interaction Primitives as Spatial Constraintscited by 59
  11. 2025Igniting VLMs toward the Embodied Spacecited by 53
  12. 2026ASPIRE: Agentic /Skills Discovery for Roboticscited by 53
  13. 2024GenSim2: Scaling Robot Data Generation with Multi-modal and Reasoning LLMscited by 52
  14. 2024SkillMimicGen: Automated Demonstration Generation for Efficient Skill Learning and Deploymentcited by 52
  15. 2025ManiFlow: A General Robot Manipulation Policy via Consistency Flow Trainingcited by 49
  16. 2026ENPIRE: Agentic Robot Policy Self-Improvement in the Real Worldcited by 38
  17. 2025MP1: MeanFlow Tames Policy Learning in 1-step for Robotic Manipulationcited by 35
  18. 2019MPC-Net: A First Principles Guided Policy Searchcited by 34
  19. 2016PLATO: Policy Learning using Adaptive Trajectory Optimizationcited by 24
  20. 2021Evaluating model-based planning and planner amortization for continuous controlcited by 15
  21. 2023Signal Temporal Logic Neural Predictive Controlcited by 13
  22. 2025Multi-Stage Manipulation with Demonstration-Augmented Reward, Policy, and World Model Learningcited by 11
  23. 2024DrS: Learning Reusable Dense Rewards for Multi-Stage Taskscited by 10
  24. 2025AnyTask: an Automated Task and Data Generation Framework for Advancing Sim-to-Real Policy Learningcited by 8
  25. 2026SARM2: Multi-Task Stage Aware Reward Modeling for Self Improving Robotic Manipulationcited by 2
  26. 2026STeP: Signal Temporal Logic for Precise Specifications for Action Generation with Vision Language Modelscited by 2
  27. 2026CoRAL: Contact-Rich Adaptive LLM-based Control for Robotic Manipulationcited by 1

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