RoboDoctor: Training-Free Recursive Self-Improvement for Robot Policies

Generalist robot policies and language-model agents provide complementary capabilities, but completing a task also requires adapting their use to the consequences of physical interaction. We study execution as a locus of adaptation: feedback guides the current action and supplies evidence for revising subsequent decisions under fixed model weights. We introduce RoboDoctor, a training-free framework that connects diagnosis, grounded action, and persistent experience across three revision targets. The harness allocates control between policy and agent; intervention determines when to assist while preserving useful policy behavior; and operation refines physical methods through observed effects. Linked experience records retain the reason for a decision, the attempted method, its outcome, and conditions for reuse. On a curated archive of 54 RoboDojo-Sim task entries, RoboDoctor achieves a five-dimension mean score of 57.10, with a native success rate of 49.44%. Recorded interactions illustrate strategy changes, selective correction, and grasp revision. These findings characterize execution-time adaptation in the evaluated system; controlled trials remain necessary to isolate the contribution of cross-episode experience.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
arXiv (Cornell University)
Published
2026-10-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2610.35604
Primary Topic
Reinforcement Learning in Robotics
Type
preprint
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preprint

RoboDoctor: Training-Free Recursive Self-Improvement for Robot Policies

Tianyu Xin, Jixin Yan, Wanqi Zhong, Shiyun Peng et al.
arXiv (Cornell University)
Reinforcement Learning in Robotics
preprint

RoboDoctor: Training-Free Recursive Self-Improvement for Robot Policies

Tianyu Xin, Jixin Yan, Wanqi Zhong, Shiyun Peng, Heyang Yu, Xiaoyu Tian, Haomin Li, Yiming Li, Sihang Li, Yuan Yao
preprint en

Abstract

Generalist robot policies and language-model agents provide complementary capabilities, but completing a task also requires adapting their use to the consequences of physical interaction. We study execution as a locus of adaptation: feedback guides the current action and supplies evidence for revising subsequent decisions under fixed model weights. We introduce RoboDoctor, a training-free framework that connects diagnosis, grounded action, and persistent experience across three revision targets. The harness allocates control between policy and agent; intervention determines when to assist while preserving useful policy behavior; and operation refines physical methods through observed effects. Linked experience records retain the reason for a decision, the attempted method, its outcome, and conditions for reuse. On a curated archive of 54 RoboDojo-Sim task entries, RoboDoctor achieves a five-dimension mean score of 57.10, with a native success rate of 49.44%. Recorded interactions illustrate strategy changes, selective correction, and grasp revision. These findings characterize execution-time adaptation in the evaluated system; controlled trials remain necessary to isolate the contribution of cross-episode experience.

arXiv (Cornell University)
Reinforcement Learning in Robotics
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