Multi-Robot Exploration

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Overview

Multi-robot exploration studies how teams of robots can map unknown spaces, locate targets, or monitor changing environments while avoiding duplicated effort. Common approaches assign frontiers or viewpoints using information gain, then plan routes with methods such as graph search, market-based allocation, submodular optimization, or reinforcement learning. Teams may share maps and plans centrally or coordinate through local communication, observed teammate motion, or compact semantic messages, including when robots have different capabilities. A central challenge is balancing coverage and information quality against communication limits, energy, collision risk, and failures, while ensuring methods transfer from simulation to real robots.

Latest papers

CardsList

56 papers10 papers in the last four weeks, up 43% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. HERCULES: An Open-Source Simulation Framework for Heterogeneous Multi-Robot SLAM, Collaborative Perception, and Exploration

    Jun 22, 2026Sandilya Sai Garimella, Daniel Chase Butterfield, Sean Wilson +1Simultaneous Localization and MappingMulti-Robot Systems

    Georgia Institute of Technology, USA · Georgia Tech Research Institute, USA · Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

  2. AnyGoal: Vision-Language Guided Multi-Agent Exploration for Training-Free Lifelong Navigation

    Jun 11, 2026MoniJesu James, Marcelino Julio Fernando, Miguel Altamirano Cabrera +1Multi-Robot SystemsRobot Navigation

  3. A Distributed Multi-UGV Exploration Framework With Loop-Aware Planning and Descriptor-Aided Localization in Resource-Limited Environments

    Jun 9, 2026Zhiwei Li, Haiou Liu, Xijun Zhao +3Simultaneous Localization and MappingMulti-Robot Systems

    School of Mechanical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China · China North Artificial Intelligence & Innovation Research Institute, Collective Intelligence & Collaboration Laboratory (CIC), Beijing 100081, China

  4. Multi-Agent Next-Best-View Optimization for Risk-Averse Planning

    Jun 2, 2026Amirhossein Mollaei Khass, Vivek Pandey, Guangyi Liu +3Next-Best-View PlanningMulti-Robot Exploration

    Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Lehigh University · Amazon Robotics

  5. Collaborative Navigation and Exploration with ββ-Sparse Gaussian Processes

    May 25, 2026Evangelos Psomiadis, Dipankar Maity, Panagiotis TsiotrasMulti-Robot SystemsRobot Navigation

    D. Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA, USA · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

  6. A Visitation Grid for Complete Coverage Foraging in Robot Swarms

    May 21, 2026Qi Arturo Gonzalez, Yifeng Gao, Li Zhang +1Multi-Robot SystemsSwarm Robotics

    Department of Computer Science The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Texas, United States

  7. Flying Together: Human-Guided Immersive Shared Control for Aerial Robot Teams in Unknown Environments

    May 20, 2026Lou De Bel-Air, Luca Morando, Ruitao Chen +7Multi-Robot Motion PlanningAerial Robotics

    New York University, NY 10012, USA · Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Station 9 CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland · University of California Berkeley, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

  8. Decentralized Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Collaborative Exploration for Indoor and Outdoor 3D Environments

    Apr 26, 2026Yuxiang Li, Kun Chen, Jiancheng Wang +3Multi-Robot Motion PlanningMulti-Robot Systems

    College of Artificial Intelligence, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518055, China · Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hongkong 999077, China

  9. Semantic Area Graph Reasoning for Multi-Robot Language-Guided Search

    Apr 17, 2026Ruiyang Wang, Hao-Lun Hsu, Jiwoo Kim +1Multi-Robot SystemsLarge Language Model-Based Robot Planning

  10. VULCAN: Vision-Language-Model Enhanced Multi-Agent Cooperative Navigation for Indoor Fire-Disaster Response

    Apr 14, 2026Shengding Liu, Qiben YanSearch-and-Rescue RoboticsMulti-Robot Coordination

    Computer Science & Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA

  11. PRoID: Predicted Rate of Information Delivery in Multi-Robot Exploration and Relaying

    Apr 12, 2026Seungchan Kim, Seungjae Baek, Micah Corah +3Multi-Robot ExplorationMulti-Robot Coordination

    Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute · Ulsan National Institute of Science & Technology · Colorado School of Mines +2

  12. Resilient Decentralized Ergodic Coverage for Scalable Multi-Robot Systems in Unknown Time-Varying Environments

    Apr 5, 2026Maria G. Mendoza, Victoria Marie Tuck, Chinmay Maheshwari +1Multi-Robot SystemsExploration-Exploitation Tradeoff

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA · Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21209, USA +1

  13. Enhancing Multi-Robot Exploration Using Probabilistic Frontier Prioritization with Dirichlet Process Gaussian Mixtures

    Apr 3, 2026John Lewis Devassy, Meysam Basiri, Mário A. T. Figueiredo +1Dirichlet Process Mixture ModelsMulti-Robot Exploration

    Institute for Systems and Robotics / LARSyS and Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon 1049-001, Portugal · Instituto de Telecomunicações and Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon 1049-001, Portugal

  14. Energy-Aware Collaborative Exploration for a UAV-UGV Team

    Mar 23, 2026Cahit Ikbal Er, Saikiran Juttu, Yasin YaziciogluMulti-Robot ExplorationMulti-Robot Coordination

    Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering at Northeastern University, Boston, MA.

  15. BodyGuards: Escorting by Multiple Robots in Unknown Environment under Limited Communication

    Mar 16, 2026Zhuoli Tian, Yanze Bao, Meng GuoResilient Multi-Robot CoordinationHuman-Robot Collaboration

  16. GoalSwarm: Multi-UAV Semantic Coordination for Open-Vocabulary Object Navigation

    Mar 13, 2026MoniJesu Wonders James, Amir Atef Habel, Aleksey Fedoseev +1UAV NavigationObject-Goal Navigation

    The authors are with the Intelligent Space Robotics Laboratory, Center for Digital Engineering, Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology, Moscow, Russia.

  17. VORL-EXPLORE: A Hybrid Learning Planning Approach to Multi-Robot Exploration in Dynamic Environments

    Mar 9, 2026Ning Liu, Sen Shen, Zheng Li +4Multi-Robot ExplorationMulti-Robot Motion Planning

    The University of Western Australia · The Chinese University of Hong Kong · Karlsruhe Institute of Technology +1

  18. C2^2-Explorer: Contiguity-Driven Task Allocation with Connectivity-Aware Task Representation for Decentralized Multi-UAV Exploration

    Mar 8, 2026Xinlu Yan, Mingjie Zhang, Yuhao Fang +5Multi-Robot ExplorationMulti-Robot Task Allocation

    School of Intelligence Science and Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China · Robotics and Autonomous Systems Thrust, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, Guangdong, China · Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China

  19. Multi-Agent Off-World Exploration for Sparse Evidence Discovery via Gaussian Belief Mapping and Dual-Domain Coverage

    Mar 8, 2026Zhuoran Qiao, Tianxin Hu, Thien-Minh Nguyen +1Multi-Robot ExplorationInformative Path Planning

    National University of Singapore, Singapore · Nanyang Technological University, Singapore · The University of Queensland, Australia

  20. LLM-Guided Decentralized Exploration with Self-Organizing Robot Teams

    Mar 5, 2026Hiroaki Kawashima, Shun Ikejima, Takeshi Takai +2Multi-Robot ExplorationAutonomous Robot Exploration

    Graduate School of Information Science, University of Hyogo, Hyogo, Japan · School of Social Information Science, University of Hyogo, Hyogo, Japan · Takenaka Research & Development Institute, Takenaka Corporation, Chiba, Japan +1

  21. Hybrid Belief Reinforcement Learning for Efficient Coordinated Spatial Exploration

    Mar 4, 2026Danish Rizvi, David BoyleUAV CommunicationReinforcement Learning

    Imperial College London, UK

  22. Enhancing Cellular-enabled Collaborative Robots Planning through GNSS data for SAR Scenarios

    Feb 25, 2026Arnau Romero, Carmen Delgado, Jana Baguer +2Search-and-Rescue RoboticsRobot Task Planning

    AI-driven Systems, i2CAT Foundation, Barcelona, Spain · Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, UPC, Barcelona, Spain · Pompeu Fabra University, UPF, Barcelona, Spain +2

  23. Hilbert-Augmented Reinforcement Learning for Scalable Multi-Robot Coverage and Exploration

    Feb 23, 2026Tamil Selvan Gurunathan, Aryya GangopadhyayMulti-Robot ExplorationMulti-Robot Systems

  24. Scout-Rover cooperation: online terrain strength mapping and traversal risk estimation for planetary-analog explorations

    Feb 21, 2026Shipeng Liu, J. Diego Caporale, Yifeng Zhang +17Planetary Rover RoboticsSpace Robotics

    University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. · University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. · NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, AL, USA. +2

  25. MOSAIC: Modular Scalable Autonomy for Intelligent Coordination of Heterogeneous Robotic Teams

    Jan 30, 2026David Oberacker, Julia Richter, Philip Arm +10Multi-Robot SystemsMulti-Robot Exploration

    FZI Forschungszentrum für Informatik, Karlsruhe, Germany · Machine Intelligence and Robotics Lab (MaiRo), Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany · Robotic Systems Lab (RSL), ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland +1

  26. HEHA: Bounded Suboptimal Planning for Constrained Routing and Its Use in Heterogeneous Multi-Robot Exploration of Unknown Environments

    Oct 5, 2025Longrui Yang, Yiyu Wang, Jingfan Tang +4Multi-Robot ExplorationConstrained Motion Planning

    Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China · Carnegie Mellon University, PA, 15213