arXiv subjects

Anne Theurkauf

Publications and source records attributed to Anne Theurkauf.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Multi-Objective Kinodynamic Motion Planning with Asymptotic Pareto Optimality

In this paper, we address the challenge of multi-objective motion planning for systems under kinodynamic constraints. We consider three problem classes: (i) lexicographic optimization, in which objectives are minimized according to a strict priority ordering, (ii) constrained optimization, in which a primary objective is minimized subject to bounds on the remaining costs, and (iii) Pareto front optimization, in which the goal is to approximate the full set of optimal trade-offs among competing objectives. We first show that established cost scalarization methods for multi-objective problems cannot be extended to continuous-domain systems with correctness guarantees. Then, we propose a unified algorithmic framework built upon the Stable Sparse-RRT (SST) algorithm, in which the single representative maintained at each witness neighborhood is replaced by a representative set of locally Pareto-optimal nodes. This structure gives rise to three distinct algorithms: lexSST for lexicographic minimization, coSST for constrained optimization, and poSST for Pareto-front approximation. We provide theoretical guarantees for the completeness and optimality of our algorithms and demonstrate their effectiveness through extensive empirical evaluations.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2025

Extended Version: Multi-Robot Motion Planning with Cooperative Localization

We consider the uncertain multi-robot motion planning (MRMP) problem with cooperative localization (CL-MRMP), under both motion and measurement noise, where each robot can act as a sensor for its nearby teammates. We formalize CL-MRMP as a chance-constrained motion planning problem, and propose a safety-guaranteed algorithm that explicitly accounts for robot-robot correlations. Our approach extends a sampling-based planner to solve CL-MRMP while preserving probabilistic completeness. To improve efficiency, we introduce novel biasing techniques. We evaluate our method across diverse benchmarks, demonstrating its effectiveness in generating motion plans, with significant performance gains from biasing strategies.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2023

Chance-Constrained Multi-Robot Motion Planning under Gaussian Uncertainties

We consider a chance-constrained multi-robot motion planning problem in the presence of Gaussian motion and sensor noise. Our proposed algorithm, CC-K-CBS, leverages the scalability of kinodynamic conflict-based search (K-CBS) in conjunction with the efficiency of the Gaussian belief trees used in the Belief-A framework, and inherits the completeness guarantees of Belief-A's low-level sampling-based planner. We also develop three different methods for robot-robot probabilistic collision checking, which trade off computation with accuracy. Our algorithm generates motion plans driving each robot from its initial state to its goal while accounting for the evolution of its uncertainty with chance-constrained safety guarantees. Benchmarks compare computation time to conservatism of the collision checkers, in addition to characterizing the performance of the planner as a whole. Results show that CC-K-CBS can scale up to 30 robots.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2023

Chance-Constrained Motion Planning with Event-Triggered Estimation

We consider the problem of autonomous navigation using limited information from a remote sensor network. Because the remote sensors are power and bandwidth limited, we use event-triggered (ET) estimation to manage communication costs. We introduce a fast and efficient sampling-based planner which computes motion plans coupled with ET communication strategies that minimize communication costs, while satisfying constraints on the probability of reaching the goal region and the point-wise probability of collision. We derive a novel method for offline propagation of the expected state distribution, and corresponding bounds on this distribution. These bounds are used to evaluate the chance constraints in the algorithm. Case studies establish the validity of our approach, demonstrating fast computation of optimal plans.

cs.RO↗

arXiv2022

Pareto Optimal Strategies for Event-Triggered Estimation

Although resource-limited networked autonomous systems must be able to efficiently and effectively accomplish tasks, better conservation of resources often results in worse task performance. We specifically address the problem of finding strategies for managing measurement communication costs between agents. A well understood technique for trading off communication costs with estimation accuracy is event triggering (ET), where measurements are only communicated when useful, e.g., when Kalman filter innovations exceed some threshold. In the absence of measurements, agents can use implicit information to achieve results almost as well as when explicit data is always communicated. However, there are no methods for setting this threshold with formal guarantees on task performance. We fill this gap by developing a novel belief space discretization technique to abstract a continuous space dynamics model for ET estimation to a discrete Markov decision process, which scalably accommodates threshold-sensitive ET estimator error covariances. We then apply an existing probabilistic trade-off analysis tool to find the set of all optimal trade-offs between resource consumption and task performance. From this set, an ET threshold selection strategy is extracted. Simulated results show our approach identifies non-trivial trade-offs between performance and energy savings, with only modest computational effort.

eess.SY↗