# RodForesight: A World Model Enhanced Diffusion Policy for Slender Rod Insertion

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.12103 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.12103/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Embodied and robot world models, one of 11 directions in World models.
- Builds on 0 of its 21 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Sep 2026.

## Placed in

- World models / [Embodied and robot world models](https://mlsanity.com/wm/embodied-and-robot-world-models/)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Slender rod insertion arises in precision manufacturing, where millimetre scale diameter and tight clearances demand accurate perception and control. Conventional peg-in-hole methods assume a rigid object whose tip pose is fixed relative to the gripper. This assumption breaks down for a high aspect ratio rod, which can bend during manipulation, making its tip motion dependent on the rod configuration, grasp, material properties, and contact. We present RodForesight, a learning framework that factorises the task into two stages: 1) coarse approaching, which uses visual servoing to map diverse initial configurations into a compact near hole hand-off region; and 2) predictive insertion, which performs fine alignment and completes the insertion. It is worth noting that the two stages can be wrapped into an end-to-end design. During insertion, a diffusion policy generates candidate action chunks, while an action conditioned world model predicts their effects on rod-hole alignment. This pre-execution evaluation enables RodForesight to select the best action chunk based on predicted tilt and radial errors before execution. Experiments investigate the performance of different stages and the end-to-end setting, where RodForesight improves the success rate from 88.9% to 96.7%, compared to baseline methods such as diffusion policy.