# Autonomous Exploration Development Environment and the Planning Algorithms

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2110.14573 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14573/

## Key facts

- Cited by 27 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 27 Oct 2021.

## Built on by (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [Fast Traversability Estimation for Wild Visual Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.08510/) (2023)
- [RoadRunner -- Learning Traversability Estimation for Autonomous Off-road Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.19341/) (2024)
- [NaviDiffusor: Cost-Guided Diffusion Model for Visual Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.10003/) (2025)
- [Wild Visual Navigation: Fast Traversability Learning via Pre-Trained Models and Online Self-Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07110/) (2024)
- [Imperative Learning: A Self-supervised Neuro-Symbolic Learning Framework for Robot Autonomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16087/) (2024)
- [Open-vocabulary Mobile Manipulation in Unseen Dynamic Environments with 3D Semantic Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.18115/) (2024)
- [Tag Map: A Text-Based Map for Spatial Reasoning and Navigation with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15451/) (2024)
- [RCA: Ride Comfort-Aware Visual Navigation via Self-Supervised Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.14460/) (2022)
- [LoGoPlanner: Localization Grounded Navigation Policy with Metric-aware Visual Geometry](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.19629/) (2025)
- [HDPlanner: Advancing Autonomous Deployments in Unknown Environments through Hierarchical Decision Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.03768/) (2024)
- [QuadrupedGPT: Towards a Versatile Quadruped Agent in Open-ended Worlds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.16578/) (2024)
- [LiteVLoc: Map-Lite Visual Localization for Image Goal Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.04419/) (2024)
- [CuriousBot: Interactive Mobile Exploration via Actionable 3D Relational Object Graph](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.13338/) (2025)
- [Watch Your STEPP: Semantic Traversability Estimation using Pose Projected Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.17594/) (2025)
- [MUI-TARE: Multi-Agent Cooperative Exploration with Unknown Initial Position](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.10775/) (2022)
- [Greedy Perspectives: Multi-Drone View Planning for Collaborative Perception in Cluttered Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.10863/) (2023)
- [IVLMap: Instance-Aware Visual Language Grounding for Consumer Robot Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.19336/) (2024)
- [Autonomous Hiking Trail Navigation via Semantic Segmentation and Geometric Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15671/) (2024)
- [HEADER: Hierarchical Robot Exploration via Attention-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning with Expert-Guided Reward](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.15679/) (2025)
- [Active Velocity Estimation using Light Curtains via Self-Supervised Multi-Armed Bandits](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12597/) (2023)
- [FIT-SLAM -- Fisher Information and Traversability estimation-based Active SLAM for exploration in 3D environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.09322/) (2024)
- [SD-OVON: A Semantics-aware Dataset and Benchmark Generation Pipeline for Open-Vocabulary Object Navigation in Dynamic Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.18881/) (2025)
- [GRATE: a Graph transformer-based deep Reinforcement learning Approach for Time-efficient autonomous robot Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.12863/) (2025)
- [OpenNavMap: Multi-Session Appearance-Based Topometric Mapping for Scalable Visual Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.12291/) (2026)
- [Autonomous Frontier-Based Exploration with VLM Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.23165/) (2026)
- [SGE: Semantically-Guided Exploration for Unstructured Environments via Image-Space Waypoint Sampling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.29315/) (2026)
- [AnchorVLN: Geometry-Anchored Vision-Language Grounding Reasoning for Open-Vocabulary Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.12285/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Autonomous Exploration Development Environment is an open-source repository released to facilitate the development of high-level planning algorithms and integration of complete autonomous navigation systems. The repository contains representative simulation environment models, fundamental navigation modules, e.g., local planner, terrain traversability analysis, waypoint following, and visualization tools. Together with two of our high-level planner releases -- TARE planner for exploration and FAR planner for route planning, we detail usage of the three open-source repositories and share experiences in the integration of autonomous navigation systems. We use DARPA Subterranean Challenge as a use case where the repositories together form the main navigation system of the CMU-OSU Team. In the end, we discuss a few potential use cases in extended applications.