# An Efficient Reachability-Based Framework for Provably Safe Autonomous Navigation in Unknown Environments

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1905.00532 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.00532/

## Key facts

- Cited by 18 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 May 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 18 of 18)

- [Safe Learning in Robotics: From Learning-Based Control to Safe Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.06266/) (2021)
- [Safe Offline Reinforcement Learning with Feasibility-Guided Diffusion Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.10700/) (2024)
- [Exploration in Deep Reinforcement Learning: From Single-Agent to Multiagent Domain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.06668/) (2021)
- [Sim-to-Lab-to-Real: Safe Reinforcement Learning with Shielding and Generalization Guarantees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.08355/) (2022)
- [Safe Reinforcement Learning of Dynamic High-Dimensional Robotic Tasks: Navigation, Manipulation, Interaction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.13308/) (2022)
- [Safe Reinforcement Learning on the Constraint Manifold: Theory and Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09080/) (2024)
- [Scalable Learning of Safety Guarantees for Autonomous Systems using Hamilton-Jacobi Reachability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.05916/) (2021)
- [SAFE-GIL: SAFEty Guided Imitation Learning for Robotic Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.05249/) (2024)
- [Real-Time Out-of-Distribution Failure Prevention via Multi-Modal Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.10547/) (2025)
- [AnySafe: Adapting Latent Safety Filters at Runtime via Safety Constraint Parameterization in the Latent Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.19555/) (2025)
- [Learning Maximal Safe Sets Using Hypernetworks for MPC-based Local Trajectory Planning in Unknown Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.20267/) (2024)
- [Active Safety Envelopes using Light Curtains with Probabilistic Guarantees](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.04000/) (2021)
- [A Risk-Averse Preview-based Q-Learning Algorithm: Application to Highway Driving of Autonomous Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.03232/) (2021)
- [Safety-Aware Imitation Learning via MPC-Guided Disturbance Injection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03129/) (2025)
- [Failing with Grace: Learning Neural Network Controllers that are Boundedly Unsafe](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.11881/) (2021)
- [An Empirical Analysis of the Use of Real-Time Reachability for the Safety Assurance of Autonomous Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.01419/) (2022)
- [Learned Risk Metric Maps for Kinodynamic Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.14803/) (2023)
- [A Safe Exploration Strategy for Model-free Task Adaptation in Safety-constrained Grid Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00997/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Real-world autonomous vehicles often operate in a priori unknown environments. Since most of these systems are safety-critical, it is important to ensure they operate safely in the face of environment uncertainty, such as unseen obstacles. Current safety analysis tools enable autonomous systems to reason about safety given full information about the state of the environment a priori. However, these tools do not scale well to scenarios where the environment is being sensed in real time, such as during navigation tasks. In this work, we propose a novel, real-time safety analysis method based on Hamilton-Jacobi reachability that provides strong safety guarantees despite environment uncertainty. Our safety method is planner-agnostic and provides guarantees for a variety of mapping sensors. We demonstrate our approach in simulation and in hardware to provide safety guarantees around a state-of-the-art vision-based, learning-based planner.