ARTFEED — Contemporary Art Intelligence

WarmPrior Improves Robotic Manipulation with Temporal Priors

ai-technology · 2026-05-16

A new method called WarmPrior enhances generative policies for robotic control by replacing the standard Gaussian source distribution with a temporally grounded prior constructed from recent action history. This approach consistently improves success rates on manipulation tasks by straightening probability paths, similar to optimal-transport couplings in Rectified Flow. WarmPrior also reshapes exploration in prior-space reinforcement learning, boosting sample efficiency and final performance. The research identifies the source distribution as a key underexplored design axis in generative robot control.

Key facts

  • WarmPrior is a temporally grounded prior for generative policies
  • It replaces the standard Gaussian source distribution
  • Constructed from readily available recent action history
  • Consistently improves success rates on robotic manipulation tasks
  • Straightens probability paths, echoing Rectified Flow
  • Also reshapes exploration distribution in prior-space RL
  • Improves both sample efficiency and final performance
  • Identifies source distribution as underexplored design axis

Entities

Institutions

  • arXiv

Sources