# MindTopo reveals VLMs' spatial reasoning abilities

DevFeed: [MindTopo reveals VLMs' spatial reasoning abilities](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/mindtopo-reveals-vlms-spatial-reasoning-abilities-6802.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/mindtopo-reveals-vlms-spatial-reasoning-abilities/>)

Author: Yunfei Ge, Anbang Liu, Qineng Wang, Johnalbert Garnica, Zihan Wang, Reuben Tan, Jianfeng Gao, Ruohan Zhang, Yining Hong, Jiajun Wu, Manling Li

Published: 2026-08-12T16:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Microsoft Research](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/microsoft-research.md>)

Topics: [Benchmark](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/benchmark.md>), [LLM evaluation / benchmarking](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/llm-evaluation-benchmarking.md>), [multimodal-ai](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/multimodal-ai.md>), [Language models](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/language-models.md>), [Robotics](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/robotics.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [benchmark](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/benchmark.md>), [large-language-models](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/large-language-models.md>), [multimodal](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/multimodal.md>), [reasoning](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/reasoning.md>), [research](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/research.md>), [research-blog](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/research-blog.md>), [testing](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/testing.md>), [vlms](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/vlms.md>)

## AI overview

MindTopo is a benchmark for evaluating whether multimodal large language models can understand and manipulate topological relationships such as connectivity, enclosure, order, separation, and knots. It compares static recognition with interactive planning and finds that current models often lose track of structural relationships during sequences of actions.

## Source excerpt

A path, a fence, a knot. MindTopo sets a new benchmark for testing how AI understands topological relationships and highlights new opportunities to strengthen spatial reasoning and planning. The post MindTopo reveals VLMs' spatial reasoning abilities appeared first on Microsoft Research.