Cooperative Multi-Agent Vision-Language-Action Models via Reinforced Fine Tuning
On the map: Vision-language-action models → Reinforcement learning and post-training
Abstract (arXiv)
We study reinforcement learning (RL) methods for cooperative multi-agent Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models. This problem is challenging because VLAs are pretrained on large-scale single-agent data and therefore lack the fine-grained coordination skills required for inter-robot collaboration. Supervised fine-tuning (SFT) on multi-robot demonstrations partially bridges this gap, but its performance is bounded by the demonstration data and cannot improve from its own experience. We present a three-stage reinforced fine-tuning (RFT) pipeline for multi-agent VLAs. First, initialization-aware data collection sweeps over initial configurations and invokes human demonstrations only when the pretrained VLA repeatedly fails, yielding robustness to initialization shift with reduced human cost. Second, offline credit-filtered tuning assigns credit to individual agents and fine-tunes on per-agent trajectories with positive advantage rather than on entire joint rollouts. Third, we find existing online RL for VLAs are less effective for hard multi-agent tasks, which we attribute to noisy co-exploration and unstable updates. We instead use online latent-space fine tuning, which freeze the VLA and perform RL in its latent noise space. We evaluate our multi-agent VLA with both π0 and π0.5 backbones across 11 tasks in RoboTwin, RoboFactory and real-world manipulation with two Franka robots. Our multi-agent VLA improves the average success rate by +23.1%, +16.4%, and +44% on RoboTwin, RoboFactory, and real-world tasks, respectively. Code available at https://anonymous.4open.science/r/mavlarft-2BC0/.
Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning and post-training, one of 13 directions in Vision-language-action models. Builds on 45 of its 58 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 29 Sep 2026.
Builds on
45 of 58 references.
Closest ancestors · 8
Same direction, newest first
- 2025π*0.6: a VLA That Learns From Experience18 Nov
- 2025TGRPO :Fine-tuning Vision-Language-Action Model via Trajectory-wise Group Relative Policy Optimization10 Jun
- 2025RFTF: Reinforcement Fine-tuning for Embodied Agents with Temporal Feedback26 May
- 2025VLA-RL: Towards Masterful and General Robotic Manipulation with Scalable Reinforcement Learning24 May
- 2025Interactive Post-Training for Vision-Language-Action Models22 May
- 2025ConRFT: A Reinforced Fine-tuning Method for VLA Models via Consistency Policy8 Feb
- 2025Improving Vision-Language-Action Model with Online Reinforcement Learning28 Jan
- 2024Steering Your Generalists: Improving Robotic Foundation Models via Value Guidance17 Oct
Other references · 37
- 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Controlcited by 2,993
- 2023Diffusion Policy: Visuomotor Policy Learning via Action Diffusioncited by 2,730
- 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Controlcited by 2,297
- 2022RT-1: Robotics Transformer for Real-World Control at Scalecited by 2,007
- 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalizationcited by 1,653
- 2021The Surprising Effectiveness of PPO in Cooperative, Multi-Agent Gamescited by 903
- 2018QMIX: Monotonic Value Function Factorisation for Deep Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 697
- 2024RDT-1B: a Diffusion Foundation Model for Bimanual Manipulationcited by 670
- 2025FAST: Efficient Action Tokenization for Vision-Language-Action Modelscited by 643
- 2025SmolVLA: A Vision-Language-Action Model for Affordable and Efficient Roboticscited by 507
- 2025RoboTwin 2.0: A Scalable Data Generator and Benchmark with Strong Domain Randomization for Robust Bimanual Robotic Manipulationcited by 477
- 2020Monotonic Value Function Factorisation for Deep Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 475
25 more
- 2022Rectified Flow: A Marginal Preserving Approach to Optimal Transportcited by 277
- 2023Building Cooperative Embodied Agents Modularly with Large Language Modelscited by 231
- 2013The Complexity of Decentralized Control of Markov Decision Processescited by 225
- 2025DreamVLA: A Vision-Language-Action Model Dreamed with Comprehensive World Knowledgecited by 203
- 2025DexVLA: Vision-Language Model with Plug-In Diffusion Expert for General Robot Controlcited by 191
- 2021Trust Region Policy Optimisation in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 180
- 2025HybridVLA: Collaborative Diffusion and Autoregression in a Unified Vision-Language-Action Modelcited by 176
- 2024Precise and Dexterous Robotic Manipulation via Human-in-the-Loop Reinforcement Learningcited by 153
- 2023SMART-LLM: Smart Multi-Agent Robot Task Planning using Large Language Modelscited by 151
- 2025Steering Your Diffusion Policy with Latent Space Reinforcement Learningcited by 149
- 2024SERL: A Software Suite for Sample-Efficient Robotic Reinforcement Learningcited by 113
- 2025OneTwoVLA: A Unified Vision-Language-Action Model with Adaptive Reasoningcited by 105
- 2025ReinFlow: Fine-tuning Flow Matching Policy with Online Reinforcement Learningcited by 83
- 2025Dita: Scaling Diffusion Transformer for Generalist Vision-Language-Action Policycited by 73
- 2023Heterogeneous-Agent Reinforcement Learningcited by 67
- 2025Training-Time Action Conditioning for Efficient Real-Time Chunkingcited by 61
- 2024Diffusion-VLA: Generalizable and Interpretable Robot Foundation Model via Self-Generated Reasoningcited by 57
- 2024Towards Efficient LLM Grounding for Embodied Multi-Agent Collaborationcited by 45
- 2024VLATest: Testing and Evaluating Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulationcited by 43
- 2024COHERENT: Collaboration of Heterogeneous Multi-Robot System with Large Language Modelscited by 43
- 2025RoboFactory: Exploring Embodied Agent Collaboration with Compositional Constraintscited by 31
- 2024EMOS: Embodiment-aware Heterogeneous Multi-robot Operating System with LLM Agentscited by 24
- 2026Dexora: Open-source VLA for High-DoF Bimanual Dexteritycited by 9
- 2026CHORUS: Decentralized Multi-Embodiment Collaboration with One VLA Policycited by 4
- 2026CoEnv: Driving Embodied Multi-Agent Collaboration via Compositional Environmentcited by 1
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- 2025Fine-Tuning Vision-Language-Action Models: Optimizing Speed and Success
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- 2026MA-VLCM: A Vision Language Critic Model for Value Estimation of Policies in Multi-Agent Team Settings
- 2024Coevolving with the Other You: Fine-Tuning LLM with Sequential Cooperative Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
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