# Physics Foundation Models for Efficient Control of Fluid Flows

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.15173 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.15173/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 18 of its 26 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Oct 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 18 of 18)

- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Neural Ordinary Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.07366/) (2018)
- [Fourier Neural Operator for Parametric Partial Differential Equations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.08895/) (2020)
- [Fine-Tuning Language Models from Human Preferences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.08593/) (2019)
- [DeepONet: Learning nonlinear operators for identifying differential equations based on the universal approximation theorem of operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.03193/) (2019)
- [U-NO: U-shaped Neural Operators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.11127/) (2022)
- [Poseidon: Efficient Foundation Models for PDEs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.19101/) (2024)
- [DPOT: Auto-Regressive Denoising Operator Transformer for Large-Scale PDE Pre-Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.03542/) (2024)
- [β-Variational autoencoders and transformers for reduced-order modelling of fluid flows](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03571/) (2023)
- [PDE-Transformer: Efficient and Versatile Transformers for Physics Simulations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.24717/) (2025)
- [MORPH: PDE Foundation Models with Arbitrary Data Modality](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.21670/) (2025)
- [Improved Robustness of Deep Reinforcement Learning for Control of Time-Varying Systems by Bounded Extremum Seeking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.02490/) (2025)
- [Out-of-distribution transfer of PDE foundation models to material dynamics under extreme loading](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.04354/) (2026)
- [PDE foundation model-accelerated inverse estimation of system parameters in inertial confinement fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.04606/) (2026)
- [Hypersonic Flow Control: Generalized Deep Reinforcement Learning for Hypersonic Intake Unstart Control under Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.02531/) (2026)
- [Sim+Real: Joint Simulation-Experiment Training Improves Balanced Prediction in Physical Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01974/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We investigate whether a physics foundation model (PFM) pretrained for PDE forecasting can be repurposed for closed-loop fluid-flow control. We construct a PFM-based controller by attaching lightweight Gaussian actor and critic heads to frozen pretrained representations and train the policy using proximal policy optimization (PPO). We evaluate the approach on HydroGym's two-dimensional Kolmogorov-flow environment using vorticity observations at (64×64) and (128×128) resolutions and Reynolds numbers (Re=100) and (200). Across these settings, we compare the frozen PFM controller against a baseline MLP policy trained with the same PPO framework. The PFM controller achieves consistently higher reward while requiring smaller executed action magnitudes over training, indicating improved control performance with reduced control effort. These results provide initial evidence that representations learned through self-supervised next-frame prediction can be transferred directly to closed-loop fluid flow control. Project page: https://mahindrautela.github.io/morph.