mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

RoboHarness: A Simple Harness Outperforms VLA and World Actions Models

arXiv 2610.14018 ↗First posted 29 Sep 2026cs.RO cs.AIcited by 1

On the map: Vision-language-action models → Generalist VLA models and benchmarks

Abstract (arXiv)

The rise of large language models (LLMs) has opened a path toward generalist embodied AI, raising the question of how LLMs can act in the physical world. One straightforward approach is training the model to generate actions: collect robot-action data and video demonstration, refine LLM architecture with an action head, and train a vision-language-action (VLA) model at scale. However, we argue that coding agents have the potential to realize generalist embodied manipulation. All they need is a simple yet effective robot harness. We present RoboHarness: a robotic harness that gives LLM agents a visual-geometric control panel so that they can directly understand and invoke embodied tasks. With RoboHarness, Qwen3.8-Flash-Next outperforms state-of-the-art VLA models on BEHAVIOR Challenge 2025 tasks. The implementation will be released as open source.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper 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 41 of its 43 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 29 Sep 2026.

Builds on

41 of 43 references.

Closest ancestors · 11

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026Xiaomi-Robotics-0: An Open-Sourced Vision-Language-Action Model with Real-Time Execution13 Feb
  2. 2025InternData-A1: Pioneering High-Fidelity Synthetic Data for Pre-training Generalist Policy20 Nov
  3. 2025X-VLA: Soft-Prompted Transformer as Scalable Cross-Embodiment Vision-Language-Action Model11 Oct
  4. 2025Galaxea Open-World Dataset and G0 Dual-System VLA Model30 Aug
  5. 2025Knowledge Insulating Vision-Language-Action Models: Train Fast, Run Fast, Generalize Better29 May
  6. 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalization22 Apr
  7. 2025Fine-Tuning Vision-Language-Action Models: Optimizing Speed and Success27 Feb
  8. 2025HAMSTER: Hierarchical Action Models For Open-World Robot Manipulation8 Feb
  9. 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Control31 Oct
  10. 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Model13 Jun
  11. 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Control28 Jul

Other references · 30

  1. 2025Wan: Open and Advanced Large-Scale Video Generative Modelscited by 2,708
  2. 2022Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordancescited by 2,348
  3. 2023LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learningcited by 1,410
  4. 2025GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robotscited by 1,225
  5. 2022Code as Policies: Language Model Programs for Embodied Controlcited by 1,210
  6. 2022Inner Monologue: Embodied Reasoning through Planning with Language Modelscited by 1,081
  7. 2024DROID: A Large-Scale In-The-Wild Robot Manipulation Datasetcited by 852
  8. 2023VoxPoser: Composable 3D Value Maps for Robotic Manipulation with Language Modelscited by 750
  9. 2025AgiBot World Colosseo: A Large-scale Manipulation Platform for Scalable and Intelligent Embodied Systemscited by 405
  10. 2026Causal World Modeling for Robot Controlcited by 321
  11. 2024ReKep: Spatio-Temporal Reasoning of Relational Keypoint Constraints for Robotic Manipulationcited by 315
  12. 2024RoboPoint: A Vision-Language Model for Spatial Affordance Prediction for Roboticscited by 251
18 more
  1. 2024PIVOT: Iterative Visual Prompting Elicits Actionable Knowledge for VLMscited by 190
  2. 2024RoboMIND: Benchmark on Multi-embodiment Intelligence Normative Data for Robot Manipulationcited by 175
  3. 2024BEHAVIOR-1K: A Human-Centered, Embodied AI Benchmark with 1,000 Everyday Activities and Realistic Simulationcited by 148
  4. 2026π0.7: a Steerable Generalist Robotic Foundation Model with Emergent Capabilitiescited by 138
  5. 2024MOKA: Open-World Robotic Manipulation through Mark-Based Visual Promptingcited by 129
  6. 2026ABot-M0: VLA Foundation Model for Robotic Manipulation with Action Manifold Learningcited by 103
  7. 2024CoPa: General Robotic Manipulation through Spatial Constraints of Parts with Foundation Modelscited by 99
  8. 2026CaP-X: A Framework for Benchmarking and Improving Coding Agents for Robot Manipulationcited by 88
  9. 2025RoboCOIN: An Open-Sourced Bimanual Robotic Data Collection for Integrated Manipulationcited by 78
  10. 2025OmniManip: Towards General Robotic Manipulation via Object-Centric Interaction Primitives as Spatial Constraintscited by 59
  11. 2026ASPIRE: Agentic /Skills Discovery for Roboticscited by 53
  12. 2026Harness VLA: Steering Frozen VLAs into Reliable Manipulation Primitives via Memory-Guided Agentscited by 47
  13. 2026RoboDojo: A Unified Sim-and-Real Benchmark for Comprehensive Evaluation of Generalist Robot Manipulation Policiescited by 40
  14. 2026OpenWAM: An Open, Modular Exploration Towards Systematic World-Action Model Pretrainingcited by 22
  15. 2026G0.5: One Autoregressive Stream for Robot Reasoning and Actioncited by 18
  16. 2026Faster-WAM: Efficient Inference-Time Future Conditioning for Robust World Action Modelscited by 17
  17. 2025Task adaptation of Vision-Language-Action model: 1st Place Solution for the 2025 BEHAVIOR Challengecited by 15
  18. 2025Openpi Comet: Competition Solution For 2025 BEHAVIOR Challengecited by 9

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.

1 paper.

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2026Demonstration-Free Robotic Control via LLM Agents
  2. 2025GigaBrain-0: A World Model-Powered Vision-Language-Action Model
  3. 2025Efficient Vision-Language-Action Models for Embodied Manipulation: A Systematic Survey
  4. 2026StarVLA: A Lego-like Codebase for Vision-Language-Action Model Developing
  5. 2026GigaBrain-0.7: Scaling Embodied Foundation Models to Emergent Capabilities with a Three-System Architecture
  6. 2025Towards Embodied Agentic AI: Review and Classification of LLM- and VLM-Driven Robot Autonomy and Interaction
  7. 2026Guava: Distilling Frontier VLMs into a Compact Agent through a Robotic Manipulation Harness
  8. 2025An Anatomy of Vision-Language-Action Models: From Modules to Milestones and Challenges