mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

D-World: An Explicit World-Language-Action Model with Recursive Self-Improvement under Dual Control

arXiv 2610.17114 ↗First posted 12 Oct 2026cs.RO cs.AIcited by 0

On the map: World models → Embodied and robot world models

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Abstract (arXiv)

Frontier large language models (LLMs) now reason about space well enough to program robots, yet the world models behind robot policies are implicit, held in network weights or predicted video, and cannot be inspected or corrected directly. We present D-World, an explicit world-language-action model built on the Sense, Plan and Act decomposition. A perception agent writes the scene as an executable digital twin using generated vision and geometry code. A planning agent searches for actions in simulation and, after each executed action chunk, revises the twin's object states and named physical parameters against what the robot measured. A parameter revision is accepted only if replaying the latest chunk does not increase any measured residual beyond its tolerance, and every chunk is checked in the updated twin before it runs. Structural mismatches return to perception for reconstruction. We call this measurement-grounded cycle of correction and revision recursive self-improvement (RSI), in which the LLM stays frozen while the world it acts in improves. We model the choice of actions that both advance the task and expose model error as a dual control problem and show that the cost of incorporating evidence into the twin sets the threshold at which probing pays, so cheap local revision counteracts the turn-off of cautious controllers. Each episode runs a real-to-sim-to-real loop, and its recorded twins can be refitted and re-rendered offline into higher-fidelity environments for post-training. Because perception and planning communicate only through the twin and language, either can be replaced by a learned model, and since inference dominates the loop, the loop speeds up with faster models. On a dual-arm robot, towel and toaster tasks show local revisions, such as one reducing the bread's rendered-depth residual from 22.4 to 1.5 mm, that let execution continue without reconstruction.

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Embodied and robot world models, one of 11 directions in World models. Builds on 59 of its 76 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 12 Oct 2026.

Builds on

59 of 76 references.

Closest ancestors · 7

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2026World-Action Models for Robot Learning and Control: A Survey13 Sep
  2. 2026Agentic Real2Sim: Physics-based World Modeling with Vision-Language Agents21 Jul
  3. 2026World-Language-Action Model for Unified World Modeling, Language Reasoning, and Action Synthesis4 Jun
  4. 2026Fast-WAM: Do World Action Models Need Test-time Future Imagination?17 Mar
  5. 2026Building Explicit World Model for Zero-Shot Open-World Object Manipulation14 Mar
  6. 2026World Action Models are Zero-shot Policies17 Feb
  7. 2025Prompting with the Future: Open-World Model Predictive Control with Interactive Digital Twins16 Jun

Other references · 52

  1. 2022ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Modelscited by 8,695
  2. 2023Reflexion: Language Agents with Verbal Reinforcement Learningcited by 4,276
  3. 2023Voyager: An Open-Ended Embodied Agent with Large Language Modelscited by 2,191
  4. 2025π0.5: a Vision-Language-Action Model with Open-World Generalizationcited by 1,761
  5. 2022Fast Inference from Transformers via Speculative Decodingcited by 1,653
  6. 2025GR00T N1: An Open Foundation Model for Generalist Humanoid Robotscited by 1,225
  7. 2022Code as Policies: Language Model Programs for Embodied Controlcited by 1,210
  8. 2023VoxPoser: Composable 3D Value Maps for Robotic Manipulation with Language Modelscited by 750
  9. 2023ViperGPT: Visual Inference via Python Execution for Reasoningcited by 603
  10. 2024ReKep: Spatio-Temporal Reasoning of Relational Keypoint Constraints for Robotic Manipulationcited by 315
  11. 2025Real-Time Execution of Action Chunking Flow Policiescited by 216
  12. 2024Reconciling Reality through Simulation: A Real-to-Sim-to-Real Approach for Robust Manipulationcited by 144
38 more
  1. 2018A predictive safety filter for learning-based control of constrained nonlinear dynamical systemscited by 118
  2. 2024WorldCoder, a Model-Based LLM Agent: Building World Models by Writing Code and Interacting with the Environmentcited by 107
  3. 2026CaP-X: A Framework for Benchmarking and Improving Coding Agents for Robot Manipulationcited by 88
  4. 2024Code-as-Monitor: Constraint-aware Visual Programming for Reactive and Proactive Robotic Failure Detectioncited by 63
  5. 2024Generating Code World Models with Large Language Models Guided by Monte Carlo Tree Searchcited by 40
  6. 2026RoboDojo: A Unified Sim-and-Real Benchmark for Comprehensive Evaluation of Generalist Robot Manipulation Policiescited by 40
  7. 2026Recursive Self-Improvement in AI: From Bounded Self-Refinement to Autonomous Research Loopscited by 35
  8. 2026Recursive Harness Self-Improvementcited by 32
  9. 2024LLMPhy: Parameter-Identifiable Physical Reasoning Combining Large Language Models and Physics Enginescited by 30
  10. 2024ASID: Active Exploration for System Identification in Robotic Manipulationcited by 28
  11. 2023Active Uncertainty Reduction for Safe and Efficient Interaction Planning: A Shielding-Aware Dual Control Approachcited by 15
  12. 2026Code World Model: Coding Agent as World Braincited by 14
  13. 2026Code as Worlds: Agentic Discovery of Executable World Representations for Physical Reasoningcited by 14
  14. 2026Self-Evolving World Models for LLM Agent Planningcited by 13
  15. 2026RRSI: Regularized Recursive Self-Improvement of Agent Harnessescited by 13
  16. 2025Real-is-Sim: Bridging the Sim-to-Real Gap with a Dynamic Digital Twincited by 12
  17. 2026An Unexpected Robot Policy: Early Evaluations of GPT-6 Astra on RoboDojo and Beyondcited by 11
  18. 2025SIMPACT: Simulation-Enabled Action Planning using Vision-Language Modelscited by 8
  19. 2026Demonstration-Free Robotic Control via LLM Agentscited by 8
  20. 2026BVB: Benchmarking Agentic Video Understanding via Programmatic Reconstruction in Blendercited by 6
  21. 2025Phys2Real: Fusing VLM Priors with Interactive Online Adaptation for Uncertainty-Aware Sim-to-Real Manipulationcited by 5
  22. 2026Fewer Tokens, Better Action: GPT-6 Astra Robot Agents with 14% Higher Success Rate but 65% Fewer Tokenscited by 4
  23. 2026Recursive Code World Models: Building Complex Worlds through Recursive Scene Programscited by 3
  24. 2026Coding Agents with an Obstacle-Aware Harness for Safe Robot Manipulationcited by 3
  25. 2026RegenHarness: A Robot Agent Harness with Evidence-Gated Recursive Self-Improvementcited by 3
  26. 2026What Stops Recursive Self-Improvement in Robotics? Lessons from 123 Rounds of Agentic Skill Discoverycited by 3
  27. 2026Systematically Exploring the Capabilities of GPT-6 Astra as Embodied Policiescited by 3
  28. 2026VisualPatchWorld: Code World Models as Latent Structured Representations for Planningcited by 2
  29. 2026EmbodiRSI: Recursive Self-Improvement for Data-Efficient Robot Adaptationcited by 2
  30. 2026SimEX: Simulation-Integrated Robotics AutoResearchcited by 2
  31. 2026Scale and Selection: What Makes Automatic Harness Evolution Work for Visual-Interface Robot Agentscited by 2
  32. 2026EmbodiedRSI: Active Continual Robot Learning Through Hypothesis-Guided Co-Evolutioncited by 2
  33. 2026Speculative Policy Orchestration: A Latency-Resilient Framework for Cloud-Robotic Manipulationcited by 1
  34. 2026Bridging Semantics and Physics with Constrained LLMs for Safe and Trustworthy Robotic Manipulationcited by 1
  35. 2026Generalizing Manipulation Skills with a Local Coding Agentcited by 1
  36. 2026EMPIRIC: Experiment-Driven Learning of Residual World Models for Robot Planningcited by 1
  37. 2026VISTA: A Visual Harness for Reasoning in an Interactive Worldcited by 1
  38. 2026OpenRUA: Robot-Use Agents Are Zero-Shot Visuomotor Policiescited by 1

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  1. 2026Think Like a World Model, Act Like a VLA: Distilling World-Model Representations into Compact Robot Policies
  2. 2026Do World Models Make Better Robots? A Survey of Evaluation Benchmarks for Predictive Embodied Intelligence
  3. 2026DualWAM: Dual-System World Action Models for Asynchronous Global Planning and Local Refinement
  4. 2026AcrossWAM1.0:A Modular Latent World-Action Stack for Compact Robot Policies
  5. 2026SyncWorld: Visual Calibration Enables World Models as Zero-Shot Simulators
  6. 2026LaWAM: Latent World Action Models for Efficient Dynamics-Aware Robot Policies
  7. 2026Self-Correcting VLA: Online Action Refinement via Sparse World Imagination
  8. 2026GreenWAM: A World Foundation Model for Robotics