mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

Modeling and Understanding Neural Weights of Humanoid Policies with Diffusion

arXiv 2610.20606 ↗First posted 14 Oct 2026cs.RO cs.AI cs.LGcited by 0

On the map: Diffusion models → Diffusion and flow policies for robotics

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Abstract (arXiv)

Recent advances in robot learning have driven rapid progress in humanoid control, enabling increasingly agile behaviors in the real world. However, humanoid control networks are typically obtained through conventional training procedures, while comparatively little attention has been given to directly modeling the distribution of their learned weights and generating functional networks in weight space. In this work, we investigate whether high-performing humanoid control networks can be generatively modeled directly through their weights. We adopt a latent diffusion framework that couples a linear autoencoder with a Diffusion Transformer. The autoencoder compresses actor network parameters into a compact latent space, and the Diffusion Transformer models the distribution of these latents. Trained on networks collected from reinforcement learning for the Unitree G1 robot, our approach generates deployable networks that perform various motions in the real world, including walking, dancing, and spin kick. Beyond generation, we further study the learned weight space to better understand the structure captured by these humanoid control networks. We identify a structural principle in the first-layer weights that consistently reflects the robot's kinematic prior. Notably, this kinematic prior emerges under both Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Imitation Learning (IL) training, suggesting that it is not specific to a particular optimization process but may instead reflect common knowledge associated with humanoid embodiment. Together, these results demonstrate the feasibility of generative modeling in humanoid network weight space, while providing initial insights into the information encoded by their learned weights. Additional results are available on our project website: https://humanoid-weight-diffusion.github.io/

Key facts. No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in Diffusion and flow policies for robotics, one of 14 directions in Diffusion models. Builds on 26 of its 31 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 14 Oct 2026.

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26 of 31 references.

Closest ancestors · 3

Same direction, newest first

  1. 2025BeyondMimic: From Motion Tracking to Versatile Humanoid Control via Guided Diffusion11 Aug
  2. 2024WARPD: World model Assisted Reactive Policy Diffusion17 Oct
  3. 2023Generating Behaviorally Diverse Policies with Latent Diffusion Models30 May

Other references · 23

  1. 2017Attention Is All You Needcited by 60,361
  2. 2021High-Resolution Image Synthesis with Latent Diffusion Modelscited by 18,863
  3. 2022Scalable Diffusion Models with Transformerscited by 6,054
  4. 2013Visualizing and Understanding Convolutional Networkscited by 2,290
  5. 2019Similarity of Neural Network Representations Revisitedcited by 1,755
  6. 2014How transferable are features in deep neural networks?cited by 1,225
  7. 2016HyperNetworkscited by 1,027
  8. 2022Git Re-Basin: Merging Models modulo Permutation Symmetriescited by 471
  9. 2024OmniH2O: Universal and Dexterous Human-to-Humanoid Whole-Body Teleoperation and Learningcited by 189
  10. 2024HumanPlus: Humanoid Shadowing and Imitation from Humanscited by 185
  11. 2021The Low-Rank Simplicity Bias in Deep Networkscited by 154
  12. 2025SONIC: Supersizing Motion Tracking for Natural Humanoid Whole-Body Controlcited by 101
11 more
  1. 2024ExBody2: Advanced Expressive Humanoid Whole-Body Controlcited by 88
  2. 2022Learning to Learn with Generative Models of Neural Network Checkpointscited by 86
  3. 2024Neural Network Diffusioncited by 42
  4. 2021Recomposing the Reinforcement Learning Building Blocks with Hypernetworkscited by 35
  5. 2026mjlab: A Lightweight Framework for GPU-Accelerated Robot Learningcited by 26
  6. 2021On Lottery Tickets and Minimal Task Representations in Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 24
  7. 2023The Training Process of Many Deep Networks Explores the Same Low-Dimensional Manifoldcited by 21
  8. 2021Does the Data Induce Capacity Control in Deep Learning?cited by 14
  9. 2024Make-An-Agent: A Generalizable Policy Network Generator with Behavior-Prompted Diffusioncited by 14
  10. 2025Generative Modeling of Weights: Generalization or Memorization?cited by 14
  11. 2026DeepWeightFlow: Re-Basined Flow Matching for Generating Neural Network Weightscited by 5

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  1. 2026Articulated-Body Dynamics Network: Dynamics-Grounded Prior for Robot Learning
  2. 2026DreamControl-v2: Simpler and Scalable Autonomous Humanoid Skills via Trainable Guided Diffusion Priors
  3. 2024The Role of Domain Randomization in Training Diffusion Policies for Whole-Body Humanoid Control
  4. 2024Data-Efficient Approach to Humanoid Control via Fine-Tuning a Pre-Trained GPT on Action Data
  5. 2026MuGen: Multi-Skill Generative Locomotion Controller for Humanoid Robots ↗
  6. 2026REFINE-DP: Diffusion Policy Fine-tuning for Humanoid Loco-manipulation via Reinforcement Learning
  7. 2026SCRIPT: Scalable Diffusion Policy with Multi-stage Training for Language-driven Physics-Based Humanoid Control
  8. 2026Scaling Tasks, Not Samples: Mastering Humanoid Control through Multi-Task Model-Based Reinforcement Learning