# Grouptron: Dynamic Multi-Scale Graph Convolutional Networks for Group-Aware Dense Crowd Trajectory Forecasting

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.14128 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.14128/

## Key facts

- Cited by 19 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 22 of its 47 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 29 Sep 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 22 of 22)

- [Semi-Supervised Classification with Graph Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.02907/) (2016)
- [Graph Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.10903/) (2017)
- [Inductive Representation Learning on Large Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.02216/) (2017)
- [Empirical Evaluation of Gated Recurrent Neural Networks on Sequence Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.3555/) (2014)
- [An Empirical Evaluation of Generic Convolutional and Recurrent Networks for Sequence Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.01271/) (2018)
- [Spatial Temporal Graph Convolutional Networks for Skeleton-Based Action Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.07455/) (2018)
- [Social GAN: Socially Acceptable Trajectories with Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.10892/) (2018)
- [Social-STGCNN: A Social Spatio-Temporal Graph Convolutional Neural Network for Human Trajectory Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.11927/) (2020)
- [DESIRE: Distant Future Prediction in Dynamic Scenes with Interacting Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1704.04394/) (2017)
- [SoPhie: An Attentive GAN for Predicting Paths Compliant to Social and Physical Constraints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.01482/) (2018)
- [Structural-RNN: Deep Learning on Spatio-Temporal Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.05298/) (2015)
- [Human Motion Trajectory Prediction: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.06113/) (2019)
- [Social-BiGAT: Multimodal Trajectory Forecasting using Bicycle-GAN and Graph Attention Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.03395/) (2019)
- [Social Attention: Modeling Attention in Human Crowds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.04689/) (2017)
- [PRECOG: PREdiction Conditioned On Goals in Visual Multi-Agent Settings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.01296/) (2019)
- [Dynamic Multiscale Graph Neural Networks for 3D Skeleton-Based Human Motion Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.08802/) (2020)
- [Multi-Agent Tensor Fusion for Contextual Trajectory Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.04776/) (2019)
- [Multi-Modal Trajectory Prediction of Surrounding Vehicles with Maneuver based LSTMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1805.05499/) (2018)
- [Conditional Generative Neural System for Probabilistic Trajectory Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.01631/) (2019)
- [RAIN: Reinforced Hybrid Attention Inference Network for Motion Forecasting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.01316/) (2021)
- [Spatio-Temporal Graph Dual-Attention Network for Multi-Agent Prediction and Tracking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.09117/) (2021)
- [Shared Cross-Modal Trajectory Prediction for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.08436/) (2020)

## Built on by (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Mobility VLA: Multimodal Instruction Navigation with Long-Context VLMs and Topological Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.07775/) (2024)
- [ScePT: Scene-consistent, Policy-based Trajectory Predictions for Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.13387/) (2022)
- [Dynamic-Group-Aware Networks for Multi-Agent Trajectory Prediction with Relational Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.13114/) (2022)
- [UniOcc: A Unified Benchmark for Occupancy Forecasting and Prediction in Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.24381/) (2025)
- [Multi-Agent Dynamic Relational Reasoning for Social Robot Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.12275/) (2024)
- [Scene Informer: Anchor-based Occlusion Inference and Trajectory Prediction in Partially Observable Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.13893/) (2023)
- [Trajectory Prediction for Autonomous Driving: Progress, Limitations, and Future Directions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.03262/) (2025)
- [Important Object Identification with Semi-Supervised Learning for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02634/) (2022)
- [Pedestrian Crossing Action Recognition and Trajectory Prediction with 3D Human Keypoints](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.01075/) (2023)
- [EvolveHypergraph: Group-Aware Dynamic Relational Reasoning for Trajectory Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.05470/) (2022)
- [Interactive Autonomous Navigation with Internal State Inference and Interactivity Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.16091/) (2023)
- [MATRIX: Multi-Agent Trajectory Generation with Diverse Contexts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.06041/) (2024)
- [SoNIC: Safe Social Navigation with Adaptive Conformal Inference and Constrained Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.17460/) (2024)
- [Disentangled Neural Relational Inference for Interpretable Motion Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.03599/) (2024)
- [Hypergraph-based Motion Generation with Multi-modal Interaction Relational Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.11676/) (2024)
- [Towards Generalizable Safety in Crowd Navigation via Conformal Uncertainty Handling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.05634/) (2025)
- [TrajEvo: Trajectory Prediction Heuristics Design via LLM-driven Evolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.05616/) (2025)
- [Recent Advances in Multi-Agent Human Trajectory Prediction: A Comprehensive Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.14831/) (2025)
- [Efficient Dense Crowd Trajectory Prediction Via Dynamic Clustering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.18166/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Accurate, long-term forecasting of pedestrian trajectories in highly dynamic and interactive scenes is a long-standing challenge. Recent advances in using data-driven approaches have achieved significant improvements in terms of prediction accuracy. However, the lack of group-aware analysis has limited the performance of forecasting models. This is especially nonnegligible in highly crowded scenes, where pedestrians are moving in groups and the interactions between groups are extremely complex and dynamic. In this paper, we present Grouptron, a multi-scale dynamic forecasting framework that leverages pedestrian group detection and utilizes individual-level, group-level and scene-level information for better understanding and representation of the scenes. Our approach employs spatio-temporal clustering algorithms to identify pedestrian groups, creates spatio-temporal graphs at the individual, group, and scene levels. It then uses graph neural networks to encode dynamics at different scales and aggregate the embeddings for trajectory prediction. We conducted extensive comparisons and ablation experiments to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. Our method achieves 9.3% decrease in final displacement error (FDE) compared with state-of-the-art methods on ETH/UCY benchmark datasets, and 16.1% decrease in FDE in more crowded scenes where extensive human group interactions are more frequently present.