# Reasoning and chain-of-thought in VLA

Area: [Vision-language-action models](https://mlsanity.com/vla/index.md). HTML: https://mlsanity.com/vla/reasoning-and-chain-of-thought-in-vla/

## Key facts

- Reasoning and chain-of-thought in VLA: 137 papers on arXiv since 2024 (data through 7 Oct 2026).
- 56 of its 137 mapped papers (41%) cite “CoT-VLA: Visual Chain-of-Thought Reasoning for Vision-Language-Action Models” (2025, arXiv 2503.22020).
- 54 of its 137 mapped papers (39%) cite “Robotic Control via Embodied Chain-of-Thought Reasoning” (2024, arXiv 2407.08693).
- 15 new papers 17 Sep–7 Oct.

## Most cited here

- [CoT-VLA: Visual Chain-of-Thought Reasoning for Vision-Language-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.22020/) (2025), cited by 56 papers here
- [Robotic Control via Embodied Chain-of-Thought Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.08693/) (2024), cited by 54 papers here
- [MemoryVLA: Perceptual-Cognitive Memory in Vision-Language-Action Models for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.19236/) (2025), cited by 37 papers here
- [ThinkAct: Vision-Language-Action Reasoning via Reinforced Visual Latent Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16815/) (2025), cited by 28 papers here
- [Training Strategies for Efficient Embodied Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.08243/) (2025), cited by 16 papers here
- [OneTwoVLA: A Unified Vision-Language-Action Model with Adaptive Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.11917/) (2025), cited by 16 papers here
- [HAMLET: Switch your Vision-Language-Action Model into a History-Aware Policy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.00695/) (2025), cited by 16 papers here
- [MEM: Multi-Scale Embodied Memory for Vision Language Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.03596/) (2026), cited by 14 papers here
- [ChatVLA: Unified Multimodal Understanding and Robot Control with Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.14420/) (2025), cited by 13 papers here
- [MAP-VLA: Memory-Augmented Prompting for Vision-Language-Action Model in Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.09516/) (2025), cited by 11 papers here

## New (17 Sep–7 Oct)

- [TempoBridge: Language-Guided Tempo Control for Vision-Language-Action Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.09451/) (2026-10-07)
- [EvoMem-VLA: State-Evolution Memory for Long-Horizon Robot Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.05418/) (2026-10-04)
- [PerturBot: Breaking Shortcut Priors in Vision-Language-Action Models with Perturbative Training](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.04616/) (2026-10-03)
- [Grounded in Time: A Multi-Source Dataset and Benchmark for Temporal Grounding in Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.04255/) (2026-10-03)
- [Divide-and-Remember: Recursive Action-Relevant Memory for Long-Horizon VLA Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.00982/) (2026-10-01)
- [When Reasoning Helps Action: Monitoring and Steering Chain-of-Thought in Vision-Language-Action Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.00601/) (2026-09-30)
- [Inline Memory Meets Reusable Skills: Memory-centric Framework for Vision-Language-Action Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.39794/) (2026-09-30)
- [D2-VLA: Dual-Memory Dual-Frequency Vision-Language-Action Model For Long Dynamic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.34792/) (2026-09-30)
- [Remember What You Did: Action-History Memory with Dual-Expert Denoising for Long-Horizon Vision-Language-Action Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.37307/) (2026-09-29)
- [Simple Agentic Memory for Generalist Robot Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.36595/) (2026-09-29)
- [RoboIRGBench: Benchmarking Implicit Referential Grounding in Vision-Language-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.34384/) (2026-09-28)
- [Resolving State-Representation Mismatch: State-Space Visual Reasoning for Open-Loop VLA Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.33412/) (2026-09-27)
- [ActionGround: Training-Free Runtime Refinement of Frozen VLA Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.33256/) (2026-09-27)
- [MemBodied: Recurrent Associative Memory for Vision-Language-Action Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.28256/) (2026-09-23)
- [X-Planner: Event-Structured Task Planning for Embodied Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.25187/) (2026-09-21)