# Artificial Intelligence for Long-Term Robot Autonomy: A Survey

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1807.05196 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1807.05196/

## Key facts

- Cited by 21 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 13 Jul 2018.

## Built on by (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [Towards Synergistic, Generalized, and Efficient Dual-System for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.08001/) (2024)
- [Closed-Loop Open-Vocabulary Mobile Manipulation with GPT-4V](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.10220/) (2024)
- [BioSLAM: A Bio-inspired Lifelong Memory System for General Place Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.14543/) (2022)
- [User profile-driven large-scale multi-agent learning from demonstration in federated human-robot collaborative environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.16434/) (2021)
- [GS-LTS: 3D Gaussian Splatting-Based Adaptive Modeling for Long-Term Service Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.17733/) (2025)
- [Self-Improving Semantic Perception for Indoor Localisation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.01595/) (2021)
- [A Survey of Machine Learning Techniques for Improving Global Navigation Satellite Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16873/) (2024)
- [Ask-to-Clarify: Resolving Instruction Ambiguity through Multi-turn Dialogue](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.15061/) (2025)
- [Learning on the Job: Long-Term Behavioural Adaptation in Human-Robot Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.10518/) (2022)
- [GSLAMOT: A Tracklet and Query Graph-based Simultaneous Locating, Mapping, and Multiple Object Tracking System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.09191/) (2024)
- [Collection and Evaluation of a Long-Term 4D Agri-Robotic Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.14013/) (2022)
- [Towards Long-term Autonomy: A Perspective from Robot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.12798/) (2022)
- [Human-Centered AI and Autonomy in Robotics: Insights from a Bibliometric Study](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.19848/) (2025)
- [EmbodiTTA: Resource-Efficient Test-Time Adaptation for Embodied Visual Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.00986/) (2025)
- [Semantic-Aware Particle Filter for Reliable Vineyard Robot Localisation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.18342/) (2025)
- [Sparse Variable Projection in Robotic Perception: Exploiting Separable Structure for Efficient Nonlinear Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.07969/) (2025)
- [PEPA: a Persistently Autonomous Embodied Agent with Personalities](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.00117/) (2026)
- [Temporal Planning with Incomplete Knowledge and Perceptual Information](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.09709/) (2022)
- [Experience-based Refinement of Task Planning Knowledge in Autonomous Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.14259/) (2025)
- [Semantic Landmark Particle Filter for Robot Localisation in Vineyards](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.10847/) (2026)
- [When to Adapt: Multi-Signal Domain Shift Detection for Efficient Training-Free Adaptation in Open-Vocabulary Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.37602/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Autonomous systems will play an essential role in many applications across diverse domains including space, marine, air, field, road, and service robotics. They will assist us in our daily routines and perform dangerous, dirty and dull tasks. However, enabling robotic systems to perform autonomously in complex, real-world scenarios over extended time periods (i.e. weeks, months, or years) poses many challenges. Some of these have been investigated by sub-disciplines of Artificial Intelligence (AI) including navigation & mapping, perception, knowledge representation & reasoning, planning, interaction, and learning. The different sub-disciplines have developed techniques that, when re-integrated within an autonomous system, can enable robots to operate effectively in complex, long-term scenarios. In this paper, we survey and discuss AI techniques as 'enablers' for long-term robot autonomy, current progress in integrating these techniques within long-running robotic systems, and the future challenges and opportunities for AI in long-term autonomy.