# Learning a Group-Aware Policy for Robot Navigation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2012.12291 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.12291/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 22 Dec 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [Multi-Agent Dynamic Relational Reasoning for Social Robot Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12275/) (2024)
- [GSON: A Group-based Social Navigation Framework with Large Multimodal Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.18084/) (2024)
- [Socially aware navigation for mobile robots: a survey on deep reinforcement learning approaches](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.00049/) (2025)
- [In Search of a Lost Metric: Human Empowerment as a Pillar of Socially Conscious Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.01539/) (2025)
- [SoGuDiff: Socially Guided Diffusion for Steerable, Norm-Grounded Robot Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.30560/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Human-aware robot navigation promises a range of applications in which mobile robots bring versatile assistance to people in common human environments. While prior research has mostly focused on modeling pedestrians as independent, intentional individuals, people move in groups; consequently, it is imperative for mobile robots to respect human groups when navigating around people. This paper explores learning group-aware navigation policies based on dynamic group formation using deep reinforcement learning. Through simulation experiments, we show that group-aware policies, compared to baseline policies that neglect human groups, achieve greater robot navigation performance (e.g., fewer collisions), minimize violation of social norms and discomfort, and reduce the robot's movement impact on pedestrians. Our results contribute to the development of social navigation and the integration of mobile robots into human environments.