diff --git a/lerobot/common/policies/utils.py b/lerobot/common/policies/utils.py
index c06e620ba..5659e8727 100644
--- a/lerobot/common/policies/utils.py
+++ b/lerobot/common/policies/utils.py
@@ -14,15 +14,21 @@
 # See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 # limitations under the License.
 
+from collections import deque
+
 import torch
 from torch import nn
 
 
-def populate_queues(queues, batch):
+def populate_queues(
+    queues: dict[str, deque], batch: dict[str, torch.Tensor], exclude_keys: list[str] | None = None
+):
+    if exclude_keys is None:
+        exclude_keys = []
     for key in batch:
         # Ignore keys not in the queues already (leaving the responsibility to the caller to make sure the
         # queues have the keys they want).
-        if key not in queues:
+        if key not in queues or key in exclude_keys:
             continue
         if len(queues[key]) != queues[key].maxlen:
             # initialize by copying the first observation several times until the queue is full
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 68122794b..127295b68 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ intelrealsense = [
     "pyrealsense2-macosx>=2.54 ; sys_platform == 'darwin'",
 ]
 pi0 = ["transformers>=4.48.0"]
-smolvla = ["transformers>=4.50.3", "num2words>=0.5.14", "accelerate>=1.7.0"]
+smolvla = ["transformers>=4.50.3"]
 pusht = ["gym-pusht>=0.1.5 ; python_version < '4.0'"]
 stretch = [
     "hello-robot-stretch-body>=0.7.27 ; python_version < '4.0' and sys_platform == 'linux'",