# Rationally Inattentive Path-Planning via RRT*

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.12494 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.12494/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 28 Feb 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Principles of frugal inference and control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.14427/) (2024)
- [Fast End-to-End Generation of Belief Space Paths for Minimum Sensing Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.12902/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We consider a path-planning scenario for a mobile robot traveling in a configuration space with obstacles under the presence of stochastic disturbances. A novel path length metric is proposed on the uncertain configuration space and then integrated with the existing RRT* algorithm. The metric is a weighted sum of two terms which capture both the Euclidean distance traveled by the robot and the perception cost, i.e., the amount of information the robot must perceive about the environment to follow the path safely. The continuity of the path length function with respect to the topology of the total variation metric is shown and the optimality of the Rationally Inattentive RRT* algorithm is discussed. Three numerical studies are presented which display the utility of the new algorithm.