aiqbench analysis
MotionVLA addresses a critical limitation in current Vision-Language-Action models by replacing sparse frame history with compact, motion-consistent trajectory tokens to prevent geometric drift. This approach demonstrates that effective robotic memory relies on physically coherent evidence rather than simply increasing 4D context volume. The method yields smoother, more direct long-horizon manipulation in both simulation and preliminary real-robot tests, offering a viable path toward more stable VLA control systems.
MotionVLA: Injecting Geometric Motion into Vision-Language-Action Model
arXiv:2606.08288v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Vision-language-action (VLA) models increasingly condition robot policies on history, depth, or 4D features to resolve ambiguity in long-horizon manipulation. However, more spatiotemporal evidence is not necessarily better: when the injected evidence is not motion-consistent, it can introduce geometric drift, fragmented temporal cues, and unstable action generation. This raises a simple question: should a VLA remember past frames, or remember the motion that connects them? We introduce MotionVLA, a motion-history interface that converts a short past-only video window into compact, time-continuous trajectory-field tokens. Instead of treating history as a sparse set of ndependently lifted frames, MotionVLA represents recent observations as physically coherent motion evidence. Current visual tokens query this history to retrieve task-relevant motion information, which is then recoupled into the VLA stream under trajectory-grounded supervision. Experiments across simulation benchmarks and preliminary real-robot rollouts show that MotionVLA improves long-horizon manipulation while producing smoother and more direct executions. These results suggest that effective VLA memory is not just about providing more 4D context, but about exposing motion-consistent evidence that is usable for control.
Abstract:Vision-language-action (VLA) models increasingly condition robot policies on history, depth, or 4D features to resolve ambiguity in long-horizon manipulation. However, more spatiotemporal evidence is not necessarily better: when the injected evidence is not motion-consistent, it can introduce geometric drift, fragmented temporal cues, and unstable action generation. This raises a simple question: should a VLA remember past frames, or remember the motion that connects them? We introduce MotionVLA, a motion-history interface that converts a short past-only video window into compact, time-continuous trajectory-field tokens. Instead of treating history as a sparse set of ndependently lifted frames, MotionVLA represents recent observations as physically coherent motion evidence. Current visual tokens query this history to retrieve task-relevant motion information, which is then recoupled into the VLA stream under trajectory-grounded supervision. Experiments across simulation benchmarks and preliminary real-robot rollouts show that MotionVLA improves long-horizon manipulation while producing smoother and more direct executions. These results suggest that effective VLA memory is not just about providing more 4D context, but about exposing motion-consistent evidence that is usable for control.
Robotics (cs.RO)
arXiv:2606.08288 [cs.RO]
(or arXiv:2606.08288v1 [cs.RO] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.08288 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)
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Full text under the publisher's open licence · 264 words
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