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. STL-SVPIO: Signal Temporal Logic guided Stein Variational Path Integral Optimization

    Mar 6, 2026Hongrui Zheng, Zirui Zang, Ahmad Amine +2STL Motion PlanningTrajectory Optimization

    Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA. · Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics Department, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, USA.

  2. EmboAlign: Aligning Video Generation with Compositional Constraints for Zero-Shot Manipulation

    Mar 5, 2026Gehao Zhang, Zhenyang Ni, Payal Mohapatra +3Trajectory OptimizationPhysical Consistency in Video Generation

    Northwestern University · Stanford University

  3. cuRoboV2: Dynamics-Aware Motion Generation with Depth-Fused Distance Fields for High-DoF Robots

    Mar 5, 2026Balakumar Sundaralingam, Adithyavairavan Murali, Stan BirchfieldRobot Motion GenerationKinodynamic Motion Planning

  4. Perception-Aware Time-Optimal Planning for Quadrotor Waypoint Flight

    Mar 4, 2026Chao Qin, Jiaxu Xing, Rudolf Reiter +4UAV Trajectory OptimizationMotion Planning

    Authors are with the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS), Canada

  5. cuNRTO: GPU-Accelerated Nonlinear Robust Trajectory Optimization

    Mar 3, 2026Jiawei Wang, Arshiya Taj Abdul, Evangelos A. TheodorouSecond-Order Cone ProgrammingTrajectory Optimization

    University of California, San Diego · Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

  6. Hippo: High-performance Interior-Point and Projection-based Solver for Generic Constrained Trajectory Optimization

    Mar 1, 2026Haizhou Zhao, Ludovic Righetti, Majid KhadivTrajectory OptimizationConstrained Optimization

    Tandon School of Engineering, New York University, USA · Munich Institute of Robotics and Machine Intelligence (MIRMI), Technical University of Munich (TUM), Germany

  7. Online Generation of Collision-Free Trajectories in Dynamic Environments

    Feb 28, 2026Nermin Covic, Bakir LacevicConstrained Motion PlanningTrajectory Optimization

    Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

  8. Hierarchical Trajectory Planning of Floating-Base Multi-Link Robot for Maneuvering in Confined Environments

    Feb 25, 2026Yicheng Chen, Jinjie Li, Haokun Liu +3Robot Motion PlanningMotion Planning

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan

  9. Unified Complementarity-Based Contact Modeling and Planning for Soft Robots

    Feb 24, 2026Milad Azizkhani, Yue ChenSoft RoboticsContact-Rich Robotic Manipulation

    Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA · Institute for Robotics and Intelligent Machines (IRIM), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA · Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering (Georgia Tech and Emory University), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

  10. FACTO: Function-space Adaptive Constrained Trajectory Optimization for Robotic Manipulators

    Feb 23, 2026Yichang Feng, Xiao Liang, Minghui ZhengTrajectory OptimizationRobotic Optimization

    J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA · Zachry Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843 USA

  11. CACTO-BIC: Scalable Actor-Critic Learning via Biased Sampling and GPU-Accelerated Trajectory Optimization

    Feb 23, 2026Elisa Alboni, Pietro Noah Crestaz, Elias Fontanari +1Actor-Critic MethodsTrajectory Optimization

    Dept. of Industrial Engineering, University of Trento, Italy · LAAS-CNRS, Université de Toulouse, CNRS, Toulouse, France

  12. HONEST-CAV: Hierarchical Optimization of Network Signals and Trajectories for Connected and Automated Vehicles with Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

    Feb 21, 2026Ziyan Zhang, Changxin Wan, Peng Hao +5Intelligent Transportation SystemsTraffic Signal Control

    College of Engineering, Center for Environmental Research and Technology, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA, 92507. · InfoTech Labs, Toyota Motor North America, Mountain View, CA, 94043.

  13. Smooth trajectory generation and hybrid B-splines-Quaternions based tool path interpolation for a 3T1R parallel kinematic milling robot

    Feb 18, 2026Sina Akhbari, Mehran MahboubkhahTrajectory GenerationRobotics

    Intelligent Automation Centre, Wolfson School of Mechanical, Electrical & Manufacturing Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK · Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, 51666-16471, Tabriz, Iran

  14. Spatially-Aware Adaptive Trajectory Optimization with Controller-Guided Feedback for Autonomous Racing

    Feb 17, 2026Alexander Wachter, Alexander Willert, Marc-Philip Ecker +1Trajectory OptimizationAutonomous Racing

    Automation & Control Institute (ACIN), TU Wien, Vienna, Austria · AIT, Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH, Vienna, Austria

  15. From Legible to Inscrutable Trajectories: (Il)legible Motion Planning Accounting for Multiple Observers

    Feb 9, 2026Ananya Yammanuru, Maria Lusardi, Nancy M. Amato +1Trajectory OptimizationTrajectory Generation

    University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana IL 61801, USA

  16. A Probabilistic Approach to Trajectory-Based Optimal Experimental Design

    Jan 16, 2026Ahmed AttiaStochastic OptimizationTrajectory Optimization

    Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Argonne National Lab, USA

  17. High-Altitude Balloon Station-Keeping with First Order Model Predictive Control

    Nov 11, 2025Myles Pasetsky, Jiawei Lin, Bradley Guo +1Trajectory OptimizationModel Predictive Control

    Cornell University · University of California San Diego

  18. ART-TEB: Adaptive Trajectory Planning for Mobile Robots in Cluttered Environments

    Oct 30, 2025Hahjin Lee, Young J. KimTrajectory OptimizationTrajectory Generation

    Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Ewha Womans University in Korea

  19. Learning On The Job: Zero-Shot Task Execution under Parametric Uncertainty via Trajectory-Parametrized Dual Control

    Oct 23, 2025Victor Vantilborgh, Hrishikesh Sathyanarayan, Guillaume Crevecoeur +2Robotic ControlOnline System Identification

    Department of Electromechanical, Systems and Metal Engineering, Ghent University, Belgium · Department of Mechanical Engineering, Yale University, USA

  20. LLM-Aided Joint Secrecy Precoding and Trajectory for RSMA-Based Heterogeneous UAV Networks

    Jul 23, 2025Lijie Zheng, Ji He, Shih Yu Chang +1Trajectory OptimizationWireless Communications

    School of Computer Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xi’an, 710071 China · Department of Applied Data Science, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA, U. S. A.

  21. NeHMO: Neural Hamilton-Jacobi Reachability Learning for Decentralized Safe Multi-Arm Motion Planning

    Jul 18, 2025Qingyi Chen, Zachary Kingston, Ahmed H. QureshiMulti-Robot Motion PlanningConstrained Motion Planning

    Department of Computer Science at Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA

  22. SCREP: Scene Coordinate Regression and Evidential Learning-based Perception-Aware Trajectory Generation

    Jul 10, 2025Juyeop Han, Lukas Lao Beyer, Guilherme V. Cavalheiro +1Trajectory OptimizationScene Coordinate Regression

    Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems (LIDS), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

  23. An Introduction to Zero-Order Optimization Techniques for Robotics

    Jun 27, 2025Armand Jordana, Jianghan Zhang, Joseph Amigo +1Zeroth-Order OptimizationRobotic Optimization

    Machines in Motion Laboratory, New York University, USA

  24. Deep Learning Warm Starts for Trajectory Optimization on the International Space Station

    May 8, 2025Somrita Banerjee, Abhishek Cauligi, Marco PavoneTrajectory OptimizationLearning to Optimize

    Somrita Banerjee is a Machine Learning Researcher at Apple. Work completed during PhD at Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. · Abhishek Cauligi is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA. · Marco Pavone is an Associate Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.

  25. D4orm: Multi-Robot Trajectories with Dynamics-aware Diffusion Denoised Deformations

    Mar 15, 2025Yuhao Zhang, Keisuke Okumura, Heedo Woo +2Multi-Robot Motion PlanningConstrained Motion Planning

    University of Cambridge · UK · National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) +1