Constrained Motion Planning

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Overview

Constrained motion planning studies how robots can reach goals while respecting obstacles, dynamics, joint or contact limits, and task requirements, which is essential for safe, executable behavior. Methods include sampling and graph search, trajectory optimization and model predictive control, and planning directly on constraint manifolds; control barrier functions, reachability analysis, and signal temporal logic encode safety and task conditions. Learning-based trajectory proposals, including diffusion models, are increasingly paired with optimization, projection, or safety certificates to improve speed and handle complex environments. A central challenge is balancing formal feasibility and robustness to uncertainty with real-time computation, especially in high-dimensional, dynamic, and multi-robot settings.

Latest papers

CardsList

188 papers22 papers in the last four weeks, up 47% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. KEPT: Conformal Keepouts Kept in Planning for Enclosed-Space Navigation in Degraded Sensing

    Oct 27, 2026Eric Minwoo Kim, Jong-Kook KimSafe Robot NavigationIndoor Robot Navigation

    School of Electrical Engineering, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

  2. Graphs of Trajectory Bundles for Nonlinear Motion Planning

    Oct 23, 2026Joris Verhagen, Jon Arrizabalaga, Jana Tumova +1Constrained Motion PlanningKinodynamic Motion Planning

    Authors are with the Division of Robotics, Perception, and Learning, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden · Authors are with the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

  3. TRACE: Traversability-aware Reactive Navigation via VLM-driven Adaptive Constraints Estimation

    Oct 22, 2026Mario A. V. Saucedo, Midhun Edatharam Kunnath, Elias Small +4Off-Road Robot NavigationRobot Traversability Estimation

    Robotics and AI Team, Lule˚a University of Technology, Lule˚a, SE-97187, Sweden. · Korea Advanced Institute of Science & Technology (KAIST), Daejeon, 34141, South Korea.

  4. Continuous-Time Motion Planning and Steering with Global Convergence

    Oct 22, 2026Mohsen Amiri, Sima Didari, Davoud Ataee Tarzanagh +2Constrained Motion PlanningMotion Planning

    Samsung SDS Research America, Mountain View, CA, USA

  5. Integrating Flow Matching and Model Predictive Control for Safe Robot Navigation

    Oct 21, 2026Philipp Holzmann, Maik Pfefferkorn, Joao Carvalho +5Robot Motion PlanningSafe Motion Planning

    Control and Cyber-Physical Systems Laboratory, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany · Intelligent Autonomous Systems Laboratory, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany · German Research Center for AI (DFKI), Research Department SAIROL +3

  6. High-Precision RCM Motion for Ophthalmic Robotics via Hierarchical QP Control and Authority-Guided Recovery Planning

    Oct 20, 2026Huanyu Tian, Adriana Namour, Lingyun Zeng +4Robotic ControlSurgical Robotics

    H. Tian, A. Namour, L. Zeng, Z. Wu, S. Ourselin and C. Bergeles are with the School of Biomedical Engineering & Imaging Sciences, King’s College London, UK. · L. da Cruz is with Moorfields Eye Hospital, NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.

  7. Auditable and Deployable Multi-Agent Motion Planning via Posetal Games from Legal Guidelines

    Oct 15, 2026Florian Lercher, Karan Mahesh, Yujun Huang +6Decentralized Multi-Agent Motion PlanningMaritime Navigation

    Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. · School of Computation, Information and Technology, Technical University of Munich, 85748 Garching, Germany. · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. +2

  8. MAGMA: Multiplier-Augmented Geometric Motion Algorithm

    Oct 15, 2026César E. Ramos Chuquiure, Vansh Thakur, Challen Enninful Adu +1Trajectory OptimizationOptimal Control

    Robotics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI

  9. Collaborative Planning for UAV-UGV Teams under Operational Constraints via Masked Error-bounded Neuro-Symbolic Diffusion

    Oct 13, 2026Zihao Deng, Qianhuang Li, Maggie Wigness +3Neuro-Symbolic PlanningDiffusion-Based Planning

    University of Massachusetts Amherst · U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory

  10. Jacobian State Augmented Viable Kinematic Safety Filter

    Oct 11, 2026Siddharth Singh, Joshua VaughanSafety FilteringRobotic Control

    Manufacturing Robotics and Controls Group within the Manufacturing Science Division, Energy Science & Technology Directorate of the Oak Ridge National Lab.

  11. Efficient Hybrid Hard--Soft Signal Temporal Logic MPC for Driving under Multimodal Uncertainty

    Oct 11, 2026Kumar Manas, Adrian PaschkeSTL PlanningSafe Motion Planning

    Technical University Darmstadt, Germany · Freie Universität Berlin, Germany · Freie Universität Berlin and Fraunhofer FOKUS, Berlin, Germany

  12. Distributed area coverage path planning subject to the inclusion of a headland path

    Oct 11, 2026Mogens PlessenCoverage Path PlanningMulti-Robot Motion Planning

    Findklein GmbH, Switzerland

  13. PATACON: GPU-Parallel Tangent-Bundle RRT-Connect for Constrained Motion Planning

    Oct 9, 2026Gahyun Oh, Junho An, Suhyun Jeon +1Constrained Motion PlanningMotion Planning

    Department of Robotics, Kwangwoon University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. · Department of Intelligence and Information, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea.

  14. Robust and Scalable UAV-UGV Planning for Aerial Monitoring under Energy and Precedence Constraints

    Oct 8, 2026Cahit Ikbal Er, Yasin YaziciogluConstrained Motion PlanningVehicle Routing

    Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA · Departments of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

  15. Making Task Abstractions Executable: Control-Aware Layout Repair for a Fixed Controller

    Oct 7, 2026Chiyoung Kim, Seungyeon Back, Sumin Shim +2Robot Task PlanningConstrained Motion Planning

    Chung-Ang University · Hanyang University · Carnegie Mellon University +1

  16. Distributed Motion Planning for Multi-Robot Systems under Topological Constraints

    Oct 7, 2026Gianpietro Battocletti, Dimitris Boskos, Dimos V. Dimarogonas +1Multi-Robot Motion PlanningMulti-Robot Coordination

    Delft Center for Systems and Control, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands. · Division of Decision And Control Systems, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden.

  17. NMPP: Nonlinear Model Predictive Planning for Agile UAV Flight in Cluttered Environments

    Oct 6, 2026Ondřej Procházka, Juraj Pauko, Robert Pěnička +1Constrained Motion PlanningNonlinear MPC

    Multi-robot Systems Group, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic

  18. Model-Based Geometry-Aware Generative Optimization for Constrained Locomotion Planning

    Oct 6, 2026Zhilin He, Xinyuan Wang, Changliu LiuConstrained Generative ModelingConstrained Motion Planning

    Carnegie Mellon University · University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

  19. P3: Persistent Particle Planning for Constrained Diffusion Control

    Oct 5, 2026Hikmet Simsir, Mahyar Fardinfar, Ozgur S. OguzConstrained Motion PlanningTrajectory Generation

    Department of Computer Engineering, Bilkent University

  20. Dynamics-Aware Adaptive Corridors with Feasibility-Perturbed Trust-Region SQP for Certified Nonholonomic Motion Planning

    Oct 5, 2026Yang ShiConstrained Motion PlanningTrajectory Generation

    Jiangsu College of Safety Technology, Jiangsu, China

  21. Training-Free Diffusion Planning with Analytical Local Scores

    Oct 1, 2026Michael Y. Fatemi, Jinhao Liang, Ferdinando FiorettoMulti-Robot Motion PlanningConstrained Motion Planning

    University of Virginia

  22. Cross-entropy optimization with prioritized constraints

    Oct 1, 2026Francisco Roldan Sanchez, Pau de las Heras Molins, David Fridovich-Keil +1Constrained Motion PlanningBlack-Box Optimization

    LTCI, Télécom Paris, Institut Polytechnique de Paris · The University of Texas at Austin

  23. Executor-aware Candidate Selection via a Feasibility Certificate

    Sep 29, 2026Sooin Choi, Soonwoong Hwang, Wansoo KimConstrained Motion PlanningModular Robotics

    Department of Robotics, Hanyang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea · Department of Robotics, Hanyang University ERICA, Ansan, Republic of Korea

  24. Robust Game-theoretic Motion Planning over Extended Time Horizons

    Sep 26, 2026Bennet Outland, Vishala AryaMotion PlanningConstrained Motion Planning

    Smead Aerospace Engineering and Sciences Department University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, USA

  25. ReVAMP: Vector-Accelerated Motion Planning for Kinematically-Constrained Systems via Reparameterization

    Sep 24, 2026Shrutheesh R. Iyer, Thomas Cohn, Zachary KingstonConstrained Motion PlanningRobotic Manipulation

    Department of Computer Science, Purdue University · Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  26. CAMP: Cooperative Arm-Hand Motion Planning in Constrained Spaces

    Sep 24, 2026Ziyuan Wang, Yunlong Shan, Fei Mo +6Constrained Motion PlanningRobot Motion Generation

    Department of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, China · School of Advanced Engineering, Great Bay University, Dongguan, Guangdong, China · State Key Laboratory for Multi-target Natural Medicine, China Pharmaceutical University, Nanjing, China +4

  27. MultiPush: Learning to Rearrange with Teams of Car-Like Pushers

    Sep 22, 2026Jeeho Ahn, Christoforos MavrogiannisRobotic Object PushingMulti-Robot Systems

    Robotics Department, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA

  28. Induced Riemannian Metrics for Motion Planning with Constraints

    Sep 22, 2026Phone Thiha Kyaw, Thomas Cohn, Miguel Angel Rogel Garcia +1Constrained Motion PlanningTrajectory Optimization

    Space & Terrestrial Autonomous Robotic Systems (STARS) Laboratory at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3H 5T6

  29. Minimum Time Trajectories for a Car-Like Mobile Robot Moving with Rigid Wheels Under Non-Sliding Constraints

    Sep 21, 2026Joseph Ben-Asher, Elon Rimon, Leeor RavinaConstrained Motion PlanningTrajectory Optimization

    Dept. of AE, Technion, Israel. · Dept. of ME, Technion, Israel.

  30. Feasibility Distance Fields for Heterogeneous Constraints in Robot Configuration Space

    Sep 21, 2026Xijing Cui, Huayan Pu, Jun Luo +1Constrained Motion PlanningSigned Distance Functions

    First and third authors' affiliation · Second author's affiliation