Motion Planning

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Overview

Motion planning determines how a robot or vehicle can move from a starting state to a goal while avoiding obstacles and respecting limits on dynamics, sensing, and interaction with others. Classical approaches include sampling-based planners such as RRT and PRM, graph search and motion primitives, and trajectory optimization methods such as model predictive control and convex optimization. Learning-based methods, including imitation learning, diffusion models, and learned world models, increasingly propose or refine plans, often alongside geometric checks, reachability analysis, and control barrier functions for safety. A central challenge is balancing speed, solution quality, and formal reliability in uncertain, dynamic, high-dimensional settings, especially when plans must transfer from simulation to physical execution.

Latest papers

CardsList

414 papers60 papers in the last four weeks, up 11% on the four weeks before. 0.3% of all new papers.

  1. Long-Horizon Geometry-Aware Navigation among Polytopes via MILP-MPC and Minkowski-Based CBFs

    Mar 31, 2026Yi-Hsuan Chen, Salman Ghori, Ania Adil +2Safe Robot NavigationMotion Planning

    Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA. · Computer, Electrical and Mathematical Science & Engineering Division (CEMSE), KAUST, Saudi Arabia. · Dept. Electrical and Computer Engineering and Dept. Computer Science, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.

  2. Video Models Reason Early: Exploiting Plan Commitment for Maze Solving

    Mar 31, 2026Kaleb Newman, Tyler Zhu, Olga RussakovskyVideo Diffusion ModelsVideo Reasoning

    Princeton University

  3. SparseDriveV2: Scoring is All You Need for End-to-End Autonomous Driving

    Mar 31, 2026Wenchao Sun, Xuewu Lin, Keyu Chen +4Autonomous Driving PlanningEnd-to-End Autonomous Driving

    Tsinghua University, Beijing, China · Horizon Continental Technology, Beijing, China · Horizon, Beijing, China

  4. Serialized Red-Green-Gray: Quicker Heuristic Validation of Edges in Dynamic Roadmap Graphs

    Mar 30, 2026Yulie Arad, Stav Ashur, Marta Markowicz +3Roadmap-Based Motion PlanningMotion Planning

    Siebel School of Computing and Data Science, University of Illinois, 201 N. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA · Department of Computer Science, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM), Mexico City, 01080, México

  5. osmAG-Nav: A Hierarchical Semantic Topometric Navigation Stack for Robust Lifelong Indoor Autonomy

    Mar 30, 2026Yongqi Zhang, Jiajie Zhang, Chengqian Li +2Robot NavigationIndoor Robot Navigation

    School of Computer Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, 393 Huaxia Road, Shanghai, 201210, Shanghai, China.

  6. Spectral Decomposition of Inverse Dynamics for Fast Exploration in Model-Based Manipulation

    Mar 29, 2026Solvin Sigurdson, Benjamin Riviere, Joel BurdickLong-Horizon Robotic ManipulationMotion Planning

    Department of Control and Dynamical Systems, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA · Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Department of Computer Science, New York University, New York City, NY 10012, USA

  7. Visual-RRT: Finding Paths toward Visual-Goals via Differentiable Rendering

    Mar 27, 2026Sebin Lee, Jumin Lee, Taeyeon Kim +3Motion PlanningRobot Motion Planning

    1KAIST · 2Samsung Electronics

  8. Connectivity-Aware Representations for Constrained Motion Planning via Multi-Scale Contrastive Learning

    Mar 26, 2026Suhyun Jeon, Yumin Lim, Woo-Jeong Baek +3Constrained Motion PlanningMotion Planning

    Department of Intelligence and Information, Graduate School of Convergence Science and Technology, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea. · Artificial Intelligence Institute (AIIS), Seoul National University, Republic of Korea. · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, Republic of Korea. +2

  9. Toward Generalist Neural Motion Planners for Robotic Manipulators: Challenges and Opportunities

    Mar 25, 2026Davood Soleymanzadeh, Ivan Lopez-Sanchez, Hao Su +3Motion PlanningRobot Motion Planning

    J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA · Lab of Biomechatronics and Intelligent Robotics, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, NY, USA · Department of Computer Science, Columbia University, NY, USA +1

  10. Accelerated Spline-Based Time-Optimal Motion Planning with Continuous Safety Guarantees for Non-Differentially Flat Systems

    Mar 25, 2026Dries Dirckx, Jan Swevers, Wilm DecréMotion PlanningSafe Motion Planning

  11. Planning over MAPF Agent Dependencies via Multi-Dependency PIBT

    Mar 24, 2026Zixiang Jiang, Yulun Zhang, Rishi Veerapaneni +1Kinodynamic Motion PlanningMotion Planning

    University Of Melbourne · Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University

  12. IGV-RRT: Prior-Real-Time Observation Fusion for Active Object Search in Changing Environments

    Mar 23, 2026Wei Zhang, Ping Gong, Yujie Wang +7Robot NavigationObject-Goal Navigation

    The School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University · Department of Data and Systems Engineering, HKU

  13. Optimal Solutions for the Moving Target Vehicle Routing Problem with Obstacles via Lazy Branch-and-Price

    Mar 23, 2026Anoop Bhat, Geordan Gutow, David Neiman +4Vehicle RoutingMotion Planning

    Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15213. · Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931 · Robotics and AI Institute, Cambridge, MA 02142. +2

  14. RTD-RAX: Fast, Safe Trajectory Planning for Systems under Unknown Disturbances

    Mar 23, 2026Evanns Morales-Cuadrado, Long Kiu Chung, Shreyas Kousik +1Safe Motion PlanningMotion Planning

    S. Coogan is also with the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

  15. Multi-Agent Motion Planning on Industrial Magnetic Levitation Platforms: A Hybrid ADMM-HOCBF approach

    Mar 20, 2026Bavo Tistaert, Stan Servaes, Alejandro Gonzalez-Garcia +4Decentralized Multi-Agent Motion PlanningMotion Planning

  16. Planning Autonomous Vehicle Maneuvering in Work Zones Through Game-Theoretic Trajectory Generation

    Mar 20, 2026Mayar Nour, Atrisha Sarkar, Mohamed H. ZakiAutonomous Driving PlanningAutonomous Driving

    Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada · Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

  17. REST: Receding Horizon Explorative Steiner Tree for Zero-Shot Object-Goal Navigation

    Mar 19, 2026Shuqi Xiao, Maani Ghaffari, Chengzhong Xu +1Zero-Shot LearningLarge Language Model-Based Robot Planning

    State Key Laboratory of Internet of Things for Smart City (SKL-IOTSC), University of Macau · Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, and Department of Robotics, University of Michigan

  18. Coverage First Next Best View for Inspection of Cluttered Pipe Networks Using Mobile Manipulators

    Mar 17, 2026Joshua Raymond Bettles, Jiaxu Wu, Bruno Vilhena Adorno +2Chance-Constrained Motion PlanningRobotic Inspection

    Manchester Centre for Robotics and AI, The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. · The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.

  19. Ultrafast Sampling-based Kinodynamic Planning via Differential Flatness

    Mar 17, 2026Thai Duong, Clayton W. Ramsey, Zachary Kingston +2Constrained Motion PlanningKinodynamic Motion Planning

    Department of Computer Science, Rice University, Houston, TX, 77005, USA

  20. Geometry-Aligned LLM Fine-Tuning for Sequential Narrow-Opening Planning

    Mar 17, 2026Al Jaber Mahmud, Xuan WangMotion PlanningRobot Motion Planning

    George Mason University

  21. Topological Motion Planning Diffusion: Generative Tangle-Free Path Planning for Tethered Robots in Obstacle-Rich Environments

    Mar 16, 2026Yifu Tian, Xinhang Xu, Thien-Minh Nguyen +1Motion PlanningRobot Motion Planning

  22. Surgical Robot, Path Planning, Joint Space, Riemannian Manifolds

    Mar 16, 2026Yoshiki Yamamoto, Maina Sogabe, Shunichi Hirahara +3Robot Motion PlanningMotion Planning

    The University of Tokyo, Department of Information Physics and Computing, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan · The University of Tokyo, Department of Precision Engineering, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan · National Institute of Informatics, Principles of Informatics Research Division, Tokyo, 101-8430, Japan

  23. CarPLAN: Context-Adaptive and Robust Planning with Dynamic Scene Awareness for Autonomous Driving

    Mar 13, 2026Junyong Yun, Jungho Kim, ByungHyun Lee +5Motion PlanningAutonomous Driving Planning

    Department of Artificial Intelligence, Hanyang University, 04763, Republic of Korea. · Interdisciplinary Program in Artificial Intelligence, Seoul National University, 08826, Seoul, Republic of Korea · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Seoul National University, 08826, Seoul, Republic of Korea. +1

  24. CoAd: Constant-Time Planning for Continuous Goal Manipulation with Compressed Library and Online Adaptation

    Mar 12, 2026Adil Shiyas, Zhuoyun Zhong, Constantinos ChamzasRobot Motion PlanningMotion Planning

    Department of Robotics Engineering, Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Worcester, MA 01609, USA

  25. Push, Press, Slide: Mode-Aware Planar Contact Manipulation via Reduced-Order Models

    Mar 12, 2026Melih Özcan, Umut Orguner, Ozgur S. OguzNon-Prehensile Robotic ManipulationRobotic Manipulation

    Dept. of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkiye. · Dept. of Computer Engineering, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkiye.

  26. GNN-DIP: Neural Corridor Selection for Decomposition-Based Motion Planning

    Mar 12, 2026Peng Xie, Yanliang Huang, Wenyuan Wu +1Motion Planning

    TUM School of Computation, Information and Technology, Department of Computer Engineering, Technical University of Munich, 74076 Heilbronn, Germany

  27. Coupling Tensor Trains with Graph of Convex Sets: Effective Compression, Exploration, and Planning in the C-Space

    Mar 12, 2026Gerhard Reinerth, Riddhiman Laha, Marcello RomanoMotion PlanningRobot Motion Planning

    Technical University of Munich, Germany · Northeastern University, Boston, USA

  28. ADMM-based Continuous Trajectory Optimization in Graphs of Convex Sets

    Mar 11, 2026Lukas Pries, Jon Arrizabalaga, Zachary Manchester +1Trajectory OptimizationAlternating Direction Method of Multipliers

    Autonomous Aerial Systems Lab, Dep. of Aerospace and Geodesy, TU Munich, Germany · Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

  29. OnFly: Onboard Zero-Shot Aerial Vision-Language Navigation toward Safety and Efficiency

    Mar 11, 2026Guiyong Zheng, Yueting Ban, Mingjie Zhang +2Vision-Language NavigationAerial VLN

    School of Artificial Intelligence, Sun Yat-Sen University, Zhuhai, China. · Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, China · The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Guangzhou, China.

  30. Interleaving Scheduling and Motion Planning with Incremental Learning of Symbolic Space-Time Motion Abstractions

    Mar 11, 2026Elisa Tosello, Arthur Bit-Monnot, Davide Lusuardi +2Motion PlanningConstrained Motion Planning

    Fondazione Bruno Kessler, Trento, Italy · LAAS-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, INSA, Toulouse, France