Trajectory Optimization

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Overview

Trajectory optimization finds motions or control inputs that achieve goals efficiently while respecting dynamics, obstacles, actuator limits, and sometimes uncertainty or contact. Common approaches include direct optimal-control methods such as sequential convex programming and differential dynamic programming, spline-based formulations, and sampling methods such as MPPI and cross-entropy search; recent work also uses diffusion models and learned warm starts. Applications range from robot manipulation and legged locomotion to autonomous driving, UAV planning, and spacecraft guidance, with evaluation spanning simulation benchmarks and real-robot or flight tests. A central challenge is balancing fast, reliable solutions with global exploration and strong feasibility or safety guarantees, especially for contact-rich, uncertain, and high-dimensional systems.

Latest papers

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205 papers22 papers in the last four weeks, down 31% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. Diffusion-Based Optimization for Accelerated Convergence of Redundant Dual-Arm Minimum Time Problems

    Apr 17, 2026Jushan Chen, Jonathan Fried, Santiago PaternainTrajectory OptimizationBimanual Robotic Manipulation

    Department of Electrical, Computer, and Systems Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th St, Troy, NY 12180, USA

  2. Trajectory Planning for a Multi-UAV Rigid-Payload Cascaded Transportation System Based on Enhanced Tube-RRT*

    Apr 16, 2026Jianqiao Yu, Jia Li, Tianhua GaoMulti-Robot Motion PlanningTrajectory Optimization

    Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing , China · University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan

  3. Momentum-constrained Hybrid Heuristic Trajectory Optimization Framework with Residual-enhanced DRL for Visually Impaired Scenarios

    Apr 16, 2026Yuting Zeng, Zhiwen Zheng, Jingya Wang +6Trajectory OptimizationAssistive Robotics

    School of Information and Software Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu 610054, Sichuan, P.R. China · Sichuan Provincial Key Laboratory for Human Disease Gene Study, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences & Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, Sichuan, China. · Research Unit for Blindness Prevention, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Sichuan Academy of Medical Sciences and Sichuan Provincial People’s Hospital, Chengdu, Sichuan, China.

  4. Scalable Trajectory Generation for Whole-Body Mobile Manipulation

    Apr 14, 2026Yida Niu, Xinhai Chang, Xin Liu +2Robot Motion GenerationMobile Manipulation

  5. Uncertainty Guided Exploratory Trajectory Optimization for Sampling-Based Model Predictive Control

    Apr 13, 2026O. Goktug Poyrazoglu, Yukang Cao, Rahul Moorthy +1Uncertainty-Aware ExplorationTrajectory Optimization

    University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA. · 2The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.

  6. GPU-Accelerated Continuous-Time Successive Convexification for Contact-Implicit Legged Locomotion

    Apr 11, 2026Samuel C. Buckner, Purnanand ElangoTrajectory OptimizationRobot Locomotion

    Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195. · Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Cambridge, MA 02139.

  7. SANDO: Safe Autonomous Trajectory Planning for Dynamic Unknown Environments

    Apr 8, 2026Kota Kondo, Jesús Tordesillas, Juan Rached +3Safe Motion PlanningConstrained Motion Planning

    the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA · IIT, ICAI, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, Spain · the Trustworthy Robotics and AI Lab (TRAIL)

  8. Differentiable Environment-Trajectory Co-Optimization for Safe Multi-Agent Navigation

    Apr 8, 2026Zhan Gao, Gabriele Fadini, Stelian Coros +1Robot NavigationSafe Robot Navigation

    Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge, UK · Zurich University of Applied Sciences, ZHAW, Winterthur, Swizerland · Computational Robotics Lab, Department of Computer Science, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

  9. Simulation-Driven Evolutionary Motion Parameterization for Contact-Rich Granular Scooping with a Soft Conical Robotic Hand

    Apr 7, 2026Yongliang Wang, Cristian C. Beltran-Hernandez, Tomoya Takahashi +1Robotic ManipulationContact-Rich Robotic Manipulation

    OMRON SINIC X Corporation, Tokyo, Japan. · Department of Artificial Intelligence, Bernoulli Institute, Faculty of Science and Engineering, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

  10. Receding-Horizon Control via Drifting Models

    Apr 6, 2026Daniele Foffano, Alessio Russo, Alexandre ProutiereTrajectory OptimizationModel Predictive Control

    the Division of Decision and Control Systems of the EECS School at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden. · the Faculty of Computing and Data Sciences, Boston University, Boston, USA

  11. Differentiable SpaTiaL: Symbolic Learning and Reasoning with Geometric Temporal Logic for Manipulation Tasks

    Apr 3, 2026Licheng Luo, Kaier Liang, Cristian-Ioan Vasile +1Differentiable LogicSpatiotemporal Reasoning

    UC Riverside · Lehigh University

  12. Flow-based Policy With Distributional Reinforcement Learning in Trajectory Optimization

    Apr 1, 2026Ruijie Hao, Longfei Zhang, Yang Dai +3RL ControlDistributional RL

    College of Systems Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha 410073, China · Aviation University of Air Force, Changchun 130000, China

  13. Behavioral Score Diffusion: Model-Free Trajectory Planning via Kernel-Based Score Estimation from Data

    Apr 1, 2026Shihao Li, Jiachen Li, Jiamin Xu +1Diffusion-Based PlanningTrajectory Optimization

    The University of Texas at Austin

  14. 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

  15. Path Planning and Reinforcement Learning-Driven Control of On-Orbit Free-Flying Multi-Arm Robots

    Mar 24, 2026Álvaro Belmonte-Baeza, José Luis Ramón, Leonard Felicetti +2Robotic ControlSpace Robotics

    University of Alicante, Spain · Cranfield University, UK

  16. Collision-Free Velocity Scheduling for Multi-Agent Systems on Predefined Routes via Inexact-Projection ADMM

    Mar 23, 2026Seungyeop Lee, Jong-Han KimMulti-Agent CoordinationCollision Avoidance

    Department of Aerospace Engineering and the Program in Aerospace Systems Convergence, Inha University, Incheon, South Korea. · Aerospace Systems Research Institute, Inha University, Incheon, South Korea.

  17. 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.

  18. Auction-Based Task Allocation with Energy-Conscientious Trajectory Optimization for AMR Fleets

    Mar 23, 2026Jiachen Li, Soovadeep Bakshi, Jian Chu +2Multi-Robot Task AllocationMulti-Agent Resource Allocation

    All authors are with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA.

  19. SmoothVLA: Aligning Vision-Language-Action Models with Physical Constraints via Intrinsic Smoothness Optimization

    Mar 14, 2026Jiashun Li, Xiaoyu Shi, Hong Xie +2VLMs for RoboticsRL for VLMs

    Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications · Chongqing Institute of Green and Intelligent Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences · The First Affiliated Hospital, University of Science and Technology of China

  20. Coordinated Manipulation of Hybrid Deformable-Rigid Objects in Constrained Environments

    Mar 13, 2026Anees Peringal, Anup Teejo Mathew, Panagiotis liatsis +1Cosserat Rod ModelingDeformable Object Manipulation

    Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE, and also with the Khalifa University Center for Autonomous Robotic Systems (KUCARS), Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE · Department of Computer Science, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, UAE

  21. Flight through Narrow Gaps with Morphing-Wing Drones

    Mar 12, 2026Julius Wanner, Hoang-Vu Phan, Charbel Toumieh +1Aerial RoboticsTrajectory Optimization

    Laboratory of Intelligent Systems, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland · Avian-Insect Robotics in Motion Laboratory, University of Nevada, Reno, USA

  22. SPARK: Skeleton-Parameter Aligned Retargeting on Humanoid Robots with Kinodynamic Trajectory Optimization

    Mar 12, 2026Hanwen Wang, Qiayuan Liao, Bike Zhang +3Motion RetargetingRobot Motion Generation

    University of Wisconsin-Madison · University of California, Berkeley · Shanghai Innovation Institute (SII)

  23. 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

  24. DRAFTO: Decoupled Reduced-space and Adaptive Feasibility-repair Trajectory Optimization for Robotic Manipulators

    Mar 10, 2026Yichang Feng, Xiao Liang, Minghui ZhengTrajectory OptimizationRobotic Optimization

    Yichang Feng and Minghui Zheng are with the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA · Xiao Liang is with the Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843 USA

  25. Kinodynamic Motion Retargeting for Humanoid Locomotion via Multi-Contact Whole-Body Trajectory Optimization

    Mar 10, 2026Xiaoyu Zhang, Steven Haener, Varun Madabushi +1Motion RetargetingHumanoid Robot Locomotion

    Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

  26. Trajectory Optimization for Self-Wrap-Aware Cable-Towed Planar Object Manipulation under Implicit Tension Constraints

    Mar 10, 2026Yu Li, Amin Fakhari, Hamid SadeghianTrajectory OptimizationConstrained Motion Planning

    Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence, Technical University of Munich, Germany. · The author is with the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA.

  27. Stein Variational Ergodic Surface Coverage with SE(3) Constraints

    Mar 10, 2026Jiayun Li, Yufeng Jin, Sangli Teng +2Safe Robot ManipulationTrajectory Optimization

    Department of Computer Science, TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany. · Hessian.AI, Darmstadt, Germany. · Honda Research Institute Europe GmbH, Offenbach, Germany. +1

  28. Efficient Trajectory Optimization for Autonomous Racing via Formula-1 Data-Driven Initialization

    Mar 7, 2026Samir Shehadeh, Lukas Kutsch, Nils Dengler +2Trajectory OptimizationAutonomous Racing

    University of Bonn, Germany · Lamarr Institute for Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence and the Center for Robotics, Bonn, Germany

  29. Statistical Contraction for Chance-Constrained Trajectory Optimization of Non-Gaussian Stochastic Systems

    Mar 7, 2026Rihan Aaron D'Silva, Hiroyasu TsukamotoContraction TheoryTrajectory Optimization

    Department of Aerospace Engineering, The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois 61801

  30. Two-Stage Path Following for Mobile Manipulators via Dimensionality-Reduced Graph Search and Numerical Optimization

    Mar 7, 2026Fuyu Guo, Yuting Mei, Yuyao Zhang +1Robot Motion PlanningConstrained Motion Planning

    College of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering, ChongQing University, Chongqing, P.R.C.