RoboHarness: A Simple Harness Outperforms VLA and World Actions Models
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
- 2026Xiaomi-Robotics-0: An Open-Sourced Vision-Language-Action Model with Real-Time Execution13 Feb
- 2025InternData-A1: Pioneering High-Fidelity Synthetic Data for Pre-training Generalist Policy20 Nov
- 2025X-VLA: Soft-Prompted Transformer as Scalable Cross-Embodiment Vision-Language-Action Model11 Oct
- 2025Galaxea Open-World Dataset and G0 Dual-System VLA Model30 Aug
- 2025Knowledge Insulating Vision-Language-Action Models: Train Fast, Run Fast, Generalize Better29 May
- 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalization22 Apr
- 2025Fine-Tuning Vision-Language-Action Models: Optimizing Speed and Success27 Feb
- 2025HAMSTER: Hierarchical Action Models For Open-World Robot Manipulation8 Feb
- 2024π0: A Vision-Language-Action Flow Model for General Robot Control31 Oct
- 2024OpenVLA: An Open-Source Vision-Language-Action Model13 Jun
- 2023RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Control28 Jul
Other references · 30
- 2025Wan: Open and Advanced Large-Scale Video Generative Modelscited by 2,708
- 2022Do As I Can, Not As I Say: Grounding Language in Robotic Affordancescited by 2,348
- 2023LIBERO: Benchmarking Knowledge Transfer for Lifelong Robot Learningcited by 1,410
- 2025GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robotscited by 1,225
- 2022Code as Policies: Language Model Programs for Embodied Controlcited by 1,210
- 2022Inner Monologue: Embodied Reasoning through Planning with Language Modelscited by 1,081
- 2024DROID: A Large-Scale In-The-Wild Robot Manipulation Datasetcited by 852
- 2023VoxPoser: Composable 3D Value Maps for Robotic Manipulation with Language Modelscited by 750
- 2025AgiBot World Colosseo: A Large-scale Manipulation Platform for Scalable and Intelligent Embodied Systemscited by 405
- 2026Causal World Modeling for Robot Controlcited by 321
- 2024ReKep: Spatio-Temporal Reasoning of Relational Keypoint Constraints for Robotic Manipulationcited by 315
- 2024RoboPoint: A Vision-Language Model for Spatial Affordance Prediction for Roboticscited by 251
18 more
- 2024PIVOT: Iterative Visual Prompting Elicits Actionable Knowledge for VLMscited by 190
- 2024RoboMIND: Benchmark on Multi-embodiment Intelligence Normative Data for Robot Manipulationcited by 175
- 2024BEHAVIOR-1K: A Human-Centered, Embodied AI Benchmark with 1,000 Everyday Activities and Realistic Simulationcited by 148
- 2026π0.7: a Steerable Generalist Robotic Foundation Model with Emergent Capabilitiescited by 138
- 2024MOKA: Open-World Robotic Manipulation through Mark-Based Visual Promptingcited by 129
- 2026ABot-M0: VLA Foundation Model for Robotic Manipulation with Action Manifold Learningcited by 103
- 2024CoPa: General Robotic Manipulation through Spatial Constraints of Parts with Foundation Modelscited by 99
- 2026CaP-X: A Framework for Benchmarking and Improving Coding Agents for Robot Manipulationcited by 88
- 2025RoboCOIN: An Open-Sourced Bimanual Robotic Data Collection for Integrated Manipulationcited by 78
- 2025OmniManip: Towards General Robotic Manipulation via Object-Centric Interaction Primitives as Spatial Constraintscited by 59
- 2026ASPIRE: Agentic /Skills Discovery for Roboticscited by 53
- 2026Harness VLA: Steering Frozen VLAs into Reliable Manipulation Primitives via Memory-Guided Agentscited by 47
- 2026RoboDojo: A Unified Sim-and-Real Benchmark for Comprehensive Evaluation of Generalist Robot Manipulation Policiescited by 40
- 2026OpenWAM: An Open, Modular Exploration Towards Systematic World-Action Model Pretrainingcited by 22
- 2026G0.5: One Autoregressive Stream for Robot Reasoning and Actioncited by 18
- 2026Faster-WAM: Efficient Inference-Time Future Conditioning for Robust World Action Modelscited by 17
- 2025Task adaptation of Vision-Language-Action model: 1st Place Solution for the 2025 BEHAVIOR Challengecited by 15
- 2025Openpi Comet: Competition Solution For 2025 BEHAVIOR Challengecited by 9
Built on by
Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.
1 paper.
- 2026SEAR: Self-Evolving Agentic Roboticscited by 0
- 2026SEAR: Self-Evolving Agentic Robotics13 Oct 2026
Similar, not cited
Close in wording, no citation either way
- 2026Demonstration-Free Robotic Control via LLM Agents
- 2025GigaBrain-0: A World Model-Powered Vision-Language-Action Model
- 2025Efficient Vision-Language-Action Models for Embodied Manipulation: A Systematic Survey
- 2026StarVLA: A Lego-like Codebase for Vision-Language-Action Model Developing
- 2026GigaBrain-0.7: Scaling Embodied Foundation Models to Emergent Capabilities with a Three-System Architecture
- 2025Towards Embodied Agentic AI: Review and Classification of LLM- and VLM-Driven Robot Autonomy and Interaction
- 2026Guava: Distilling Frontier VLMs into a Compact Agent through a Robotic Manipulation Harness
- 2025An Anatomy of Vision-Language-Action Models: From Modules to Milestones and Challenges