Offline Goal-Conditioned Reinforcement Learning (GCRL) holds great promise for domains such as autonomous navigation and locomotion, where collecting interactive data is costly and unsafe. However, it remains challenging in practice due to the need to learn from datasets with limited coverage of the state-action space and to generalize across long-horizon tasks. To improve on these challenges, we propose a \emph{Physics-informed (Pi)} regularized loss for value learning, derived from the Eikonal Partial Differential Equation (PDE) and which induces a geometric inductive bias in the learned value function. Unlike generic gradient penalties that are primarily used to stabilize training, our formulation is grounded in continuous-time optimal control and encourages value functions to align with cost-to-go structures. The proposed regularizer is broadly compatible with temporal-difference-based value learning and can be integrated into existing Offline GCRL algorithms. When combined with Hierarchical Implicit Q-Learning (HIQL), the resulting method, Eikonal-regularized HIQL (Eik-HIQL), yields significant improvements in both performance and generalization, with pronounced gains in stitching regimes and large-scale navigation tasks.

Planning collision-free paths for a large group of agents is a challenging problem with numerous real-world applications. While recent advances in Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF) have shown promising progress, standard MAPF algorithms rely on simplified kinodynamic models, preventing agents from directly following the generated MAPF plan. To bridge this gap, we propose kinodynamic Temporal Plan Graph Planning (kTPG), a multi-agent speed optimization algorithm that efficiently refines a MAPF plan into a kin-odynamically feasible plan while accounting for uncertainties and preserving collision-freeness. Building on kTPG, we propose Windowed kTPG (WinkTPG), a MAPF execution framework that incrementally refines MAPF plans using a window-based mechanism, dynamically incorporating agent information during execution to reduce uncertainty. Experiments show that WinkTPG can generate speed profiles for up to 1,000 agents in 1 second and improves solution quality by up to 51.7% over existing MAPF execution methods.

Large image generation and vision models, combined with differentiable rendering technologies, have become powerful tools for generating paths that can be drawn or painted by a robot. However, these tools often overlook the intrinsic physicality of the human drawing/writing act, which is usually executed with skillful hand/arm gestures. Taking this into account is important for the visual aesthetics of the results and for the development of closer and more intuitive artist-robot collaboration scenarios. We present a method that bridges this gap by enabling gradient-based optimization of natural human-like motions guided by cost functions defined in image space. To this end, we use the sigma-lognormal model of human hand/arm movements, with an adaptation that enables its use in conjunction with a differentiable vector graphics (DiffVG) renderer. We demonstrate how this pipeline can be used to generate feasible trajectories for a robot by combining image-driven objectives with a minimum-time smoothing criterion. We demonstrate applications with generation and robotic reproduction of synthetic graffiti as well as image abstraction.

One of the primary challenges in urban autonomous vehicle decision-making and planning lies in effectively managing intricate interactions with diverse traffic participants characterized by unpredictable movement patterns. Additionally, interpreting and adhering to traffic regulations within rapidly evolving traffic scenarios pose significant hurdles. This paper proposed a rule-based autonomous vehicle decision-making and planning framework which extracts right-of-way from traffic rules to generate behavioural parameters, integrating them to effectively adhere to and navigate through traffic regulations. The framework considers the strong interaction between traffic participants mathematically by formulating the decision-making and planning problem into a differential game. By finding the Nash equilibrium of the problem, the autonomous vehicle is able to find optimal decisions. The proposed framework was tested under simulation as well as full-size vehicle platform, the results show that the ego vehicle is able to safely interact with surrounding traffic participants while adhering to traffic rules.

Accurate speed estimation in sensorless brushless DC motors is essential for high-performance control and monitoring, yet conventional model-based approaches struggle with system nonlinearities and parameter uncertainties. In this work, we propose an in-context learning framework leveraging transformer-based models to perform zero-shot speed estimation using only electrical measurements. By training the filter offline on simulated motor trajectories, we enable real-time inference on unseen real motors without retraining, eliminating the need for explicit system identification while retaining adaptability to varying operating conditions. Experimental results demonstrate that our method outperforms traditional Kalman filter-based estimators, especially in low-speed regimes that are crucial during motor startup.

Off-road navigation is essential for a wide range of applications in field robotics such as planetary exploration and disaster response. However, it remains an unresolved challenge due to the unstructured environments and inherent complexity of terrain-vehicle interactions. Traditional physics-based methods struggle to accurately model the nonlinear dynamics of these interactions, while data-driven approaches often suffer from overfitting to specific motion patterns, vehicle sizes, and types, limiting their generalizability. To overcome these challenges, we introduce a vision-based friction estimation framework grounded in neuro-symbolic principles, integrating neural networks for visual perception with symbolic reasoning for physical modeling. This enables significantly improved generalization abilities through explicit physical reasoning incorporating the predicted friction. Additionally, we develop a physics-informed planner that leverages the learned friction coefficient to generate physically feasible and efficient paths, along with corresponding speed profiles. We refer to our approach as AnyNav and evaluate it in both simulation and real-world experiments, demonstrating its utility and robustness across various off-road scenarios and multiple types of four-wheeled vehicles. These results mark an important step toward developing neuro-symbolic spatial intelligence to reason about complex, unstructured environments and enable autonomous off-road navigation in challenging scenarios. Video demonstrations are available at https://sairlab.org/anynav/, where the source code will also be released.

Multi-Agent Motion Planning (MAMP) finds various applications in fields such as traffic management, airport operations, and warehouse automation. In many of these environments, differential drive robots are commonly used. These robots have a kinodynamic model that allows only in-place rotation and movement along their current orientation, subject to speed and acceleration limits. However, existing Multi-Agent Path Finding (MAPF)-based methods often use simplified models for robot kinodynamics, which limits their practicality and realism. In this paper, we introduce a three-level framework called MASS to address these challenges. MASS combines MAPF-based methods with our proposed stationary state search planner to generate high-quality kinodynamically-feasible plans. We further extend MASS using an adaptive window mechanism to address the lifelong MAMP problem. Empirically, we tested our methods on the single-shot grid map domain and the lifelong warehouse domain. Our method shows up to 400% improvements in terms of throughput compared to existing methods.

Safety in industrial robotic environments is a hot research topic in the area of human-robot interaction (HRI). Up to now, a robotic arm on an assembly line interacts with other machines away from human workers. Nowadays, robotic arm manufactures are aimed to their robots could increasingly perform tasks collaborating with humans. One of the ways to improve this collaboration is by making the movement of robots more humanlike. This way, it would be easier for a human to foresee the movement of the robot and approach it without fear of contact. The main difference between the movement of a human and of a robotic arm is that the former has a bell-shaped speed profile while the latter has a uniform speed one. To generate this speed profile, the kinematic theory of rapid human movements and its Sigma-Lognormal model has been used. This model is widely used to explain most of the basic phenomena related to the control of human movements. Both human-like and robotic-like movements are transferred to the UR3 robot. In this paper we detail the how the UR3 robot was programmed to produce both kinds of movement. The dissimilarities result between the input motion and output motion to the robot confirm the possibility to develop human-like velocities in the UR3 robot.

Generating representative rear-end crash scenarios is crucial for safety assessments of Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) and Automated Driving systems (ADS). However, existing methods for scenario generation face challenges such as limited and biased in-depth crash data and difficulties in validation. This study sought to overcome these challenges by combining naturalistic driving data and pre-crash kinematics data from rear-end crashes. The combined dataset was weighted to create a representative dataset of rear-end crash characteristics across the full severity range in the United States. Multivariate distribution models were built for the combined dataset, and a driver behavior model for the following vehicle was created by combining two existing models. Simulations were conducted to generate a set of synthetic rear-end crash scenarios, which were then weighted to create a representative synthetic rear-end crash dataset. Finally, the synthetic dataset was validated by comparing the distributions of parameters and the outcomes (Delta-v, the total change in vehicle velocity over the duration of the crash event) of the generated crashes with those in the original combined dataset. The synthetic crash dataset can be used for the safety assessments of ADAS and ADS and as a benchmark when evaluating the representativeness of scenarios generated through other methods.

Collaborative robots or cobots interact with humans in a common work environment. In cobots, one under investigated but important issue is related to their movement and how it is perceived by humans. This paper tries to analyze whether humans prefer a robot moving in a human or in a robotic fashion. To this end, the present work lays out what differentiates the movement performed by an industrial robotic arm from that performed by a human one. The main difference lies in the fact that the robotic movement has a trapezoidal speed profile, while for the human arm, the speed profile is bell-shaped and during complex movements, it can be considered as a sum of superimposed bell-shaped movements. Based on the lognormality principle, a procedure was developed for a robotic arm to perform human-like movements. Both speed profiles were implemented in two industrial robots, namely, an ABB IRB 120 and a Universal Robot UR3. Three tests were used to study the subjects' preference when seeing both movements and another analyzed the same when interacting with the robot by touching its ends with their fingers.