GeoPredict: Leveraging Predictive Kinematics and 3D Gaussian Geometry for Precise VLA Manipulation

arXiv cs.RO / 4/8/2026

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Key Points

  • GeoPredict is a geometry-aware Vision-Language-Action (VLA) framework designed to overcome VLA models’ largely reactive, 2D-centric behavior in precision 3D manipulation tasks.
  • The method adds (1) a trajectory-level module that uses motion history to predict multi-step 3D arm keypoint trajectories and (2) a predictive 3D Gaussian geometry module that forecasts workspace geometry with track-guided refinement.
  • GeoPredict uses its predictive 3D components only for training-time supervision via depth-based rendering; during inference it relies on lightweight query tokens without performing any 3D decoding.
  • Experiments on RoboCasa Human-50, LIBERO, and real-world manipulation demonstrate consistent improvements over strong VLA baselines, with the biggest gains in geometry- and space-intensive scenarios.

Abstract

Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models achieve strong generalization in robotic manipulation but remain largely reactive and 2D-centric, making them unreliable in tasks that require precise 3D reasoning. We propose GeoPredict, a geometry-aware VLA framework that augments a continuous-action policy with predictive kinematic and geometric priors. GeoPredict introduces a trajectory-level module that encodes motion history and predicts multi-step 3D keypoint trajectories of robot arms, and a predictive 3D Gaussian geometry module that forecasts workspace geometry with track-guided refinement along future keypoint trajectories. These predictive modules serve exclusively as training-time supervision through depth-based rendering, while inference requires only lightweight additional query tokens without invoking any 3D decoding. Experiments on RoboCasa Human-50, LIBERO, and real-world manipulation tasks show that GeoPredict consistently outperforms strong VLA baselines, especially in geometry-intensive and spatially demanding scenarios.