Bridging Perception, Language, and Action: A Survey and Bibliometric Analysis of VLM & VLA Systems

Bridging Perception, Language, and Action: A Survey and Bibliometric Analysis of VLM & VLA Systems | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Systematic Review Bridging Perception, Language, and Action: A Survey and Bibliometric Analysis of VLM & VLA Systems Roman Dolgopolyi, Anastasios Tsevas This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7935378/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Vision-Language Models (VLMs) and Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models mark a pivotal advancement in multimodal AI, integrating perception, language understanding, and physical action for embodied intelligence in real-world applications. This survey delivers an in-depth bibliometric analysis of 1,798 publications sourced from Scopus and OpenAlex, merging quanti- tative computational techniques with qualitative examination to examine the field’s evolution, key themes, and persistent challenges. Through keyword frequency assessment, co-occurrence networks, temporal trend mapping, author collaboration visualization, and similarity-based clus- tering of titles and keywords, we uncover exponential publication growth since 2022—spanning a 50-fold increase—with core themes in language models, visual languages, and action recognition driving unified multimodal architectures. The analysis highlights ten keyword clusters centered on multimodal integration, robotic learning, and foundation models, alongside ten title clusters emphasizing applications from robotic navigation and video understanding to generalist agents and web navigation. Drawn author collaboration maps highlight geographic dominance by U.S. and Chinese institutions, which implies risks in technology governance and safety oversight. The qualitative review of impact papers traces VLA progression from closed-source fine-tuning to open-source transfer learning, rigorous grounding evaluations, cultural bias as- sessments, and deployments in virtual agents, autonomous driving, and robotic manipulation. Despite technical maturity, critical gaps persist in safety mechanisms, adversarial robustness, and standardized evaluation, urging prioritized research for responsible deployment. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Vision-Language Models Vision-Language-Action Multimodal Learning Biblio- metric Analysis Embodied AI Foundation Models Large Language Models Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7935378","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Systematic Review","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":534172689,"identity":"2a737250-051d-459b-aa9d-cb3ef9d72736","order_by":0,"name":"Roman Dolgopolyi","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA3UlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYHACA4YHIIqdgeHAB5gIQS0JIIqZgeHgDJK1MPMQo8W8gXnjg4RfNnn8zDyGh21q7Owa2Ju3SeDTInOArdggsS+tWLKZx+BwzrHk5AaeY2V4tUgw8JhJJPYcTtxwGKSF7UAyg0SOGQlaLP4Btci/IUJLwg+oFsa2A3YMEjwEtDCD/NIA8gtbwcHevuQENp60Ygu8WtibNz748AcYYuzNmz/8+GZnz89+eOMNfFpA0cHA2AaKGg5wdCS24VUOB39AWtgfgJj2xOkYBaNgFIyCkQQAMfVGHNBVwHkAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0002-9884-8386","institution":"The American College of Greece","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Roman","middleName":"","lastName":"Dolgopolyi","suffix":""},{"id":534172690,"identity":"0bb830d9-f7e5-497a-af7e-a710d9e637c4","order_by":1,"name":"Anastasios Tsevas","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"The American College of Greece","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Anastasios","middleName":"","lastName":"Tsevas","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-10-23 22:12:38","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7935378/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7935378/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":94453549,"identity":"45370a65-2499-47ec-bcd6-b89343ccfa52","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-10-27 14:42:37","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":379148,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"paper.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7935378/v1_covered_44dff933-1314-4ff2-be45-7a03b05e555f.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"The authors declare no competing interests.","formattedTitle":"\u003cp\u003eBridging Perception, Language, and Action: A Survey and Bibliometric Analysis of VLM \u0026amp; VLA Systems\u003c/p\u003e","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":true,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"The American College of Greece","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":true,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Vision-Language Models, Vision-Language-Action, Multimodal Learning, Biblio- metric Analysis, Embodied AI, Foundation Models, Large Language Models","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7935378/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7935378/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eVision-Language Models (VLMs) and Vision-Language-Action (VLA) models mark a pivotal advancement in multimodal AI, integrating perception, language understanding, and physical action for embodied intelligence in real-world applications. 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