WayFinder: Hierarchical Visual-Language-Action for Zero-Shot Waypoint Generation and Low-Level Kinematic Control

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Visual Language Action (VLA) models offer unprecedented generalization for autonomous robots; however, their real-world deployment is frequently bottlenecked by unreliable execution and the prohibitive computational cost of fine-tuning for specific robot embodiments and tasks. To bridge this gap, we propose WayFinder, an end-to-end, closed-loop hierarchical VLA framework that circumvents the need for fine-tuning by decoupling high-level task reasoning from low-level kinematic control. WayFinder utilizes a zero-shot, offboard Multimodal Large Language Model (MLLM) policy to process linguistic context and state maps for strategic waypoint generation. Asynchronously, a lightweight, onboard policy executes real-time kinematic control at high frequency based on continuous sensor feedback. We evaluate WayFinder in Microsoft AirSim, testing on four environments of varying complexity and three MLLM scales to balance prediction efficacy with computational efficiency. Our results demonstrate that WayFinder achieves superior navigation reliability compared to baseline low-level policies. By querying the high-level MLLM only during navigation failures, WayFinder eliminates the need for fine-tuning, minimizes expensive inferences, and significantly increases navigation success rates by up to 27.45%.