mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Rho: A Foundation for Efficiently Adaptable VLA Models

arXiv 2609.38164 ↗First posted 29 Sep 2026cs.ROcited by 0

On the map: Vision-language-action models → Reinforcement learning and post-training also fits: Generalist VLA models and benchmarks

Abstract (arXiv)

General-purpose physical AI models must combine broad visual and linguistic capabilities with precise control across robot embodiments and efficient adaptation to downstream tasks. We introduce Rho, a family of open-weights VLA models for bimanual manipulation designed for data-light task adaptation on 3 embodiments representative of dual-arm robots across research labs and the industry -- YAM Box, UR AI Trainer, and FR3 Duo. We systematically ablate Rho's action-expert architecture and training recipe, and show in controlled simulation and physical-robot experiments that embodiment midtraining improves downstream adaptation. The resulting Rho variants for YAM Box, UR AI Trainer, and FR3 Duo match or outperform existing open-weights VLAs and achieve the strongest overall performance across the tasks, embodiments, and baselines evaluated in this report. We further demonstrate the Rho model family's built-in capacity for online adaptation: an internal latent policy learns from corrective feedback to select observation-conditioned noise inputs for the frozen flow-matching action expert. With as few as 15 corrected episodes, adapting this lightweight module enables Rho to handle task situations at the fringe of its offline finetuning distribution. Together, these results position Rho as both a strong general-purpose robotic manipulation model and a practical foundation for adaptation. We release the base Rho model and the embodiment-specific checkpoints to facilitate Rho's deployment in research experiments and practical industrial use cases.

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 51 of its 74 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 29 Sep 2026.

Builds on

51 of 74 references.

Closest ancestors · 2

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025π*0.6: a VLA That Learns From Experience18 Nov
  2. 2024Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policy20 May

Other references · 49

  1. 2022Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformerscited by 5,931
  2. 2025Wan: Open and Advanced Large-Scale Video Generative Modelscited by 2,536
  3. 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Controlcited by 2,297
  4. 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalizationcited by 1,653
  5. 2023Learning Fine-Grained Bimanual Manipulation with Low-Cost Hardwarecited by 1,490
  6. 2025GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robotscited by 1,167
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  11. 2025SmolVLA: A Vision-Language-Action Model for Affordable and Efficient Roboticscited by 507
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37 more
  1. 2025RoboTwin 2.0: A Scalable Data Generator and Benchmark with Strong Domain Randomization for Robust Bimanual Robotic Manipulationcited by 477
  2. 2026World Action Models are Zero-shot Policiescited by 411
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  37. 2026Benchmarking Affordance Generalization with BusyBoxcited by 2

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