# HuNavSim: A ROS 2 Human Navigation Simulator for Benchmarking Human-Aware Robot Navigation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.01303 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.01303/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 2 May 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [Principles and Guidelines for Evaluating Social Robot Navigation Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.16740/) (2023)
- [MetaUrban: An Embodied AI Simulation Platform for Urban Micromobility](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.08725/) (2024)
- [DR-MPC: Deep Residual Model Predictive Control for Real-world Social Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.10646/) (2024)
- [Arena 4.0: A Comprehensive ROS2 Development and Benchmarking Platform for Human-centric Navigation Using Generative-Model-based Environment Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.12471/) (2024)
- [LISN: Language-Instructed Social Navigation with VLM-based Controller Modulating](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.09920/) (2025)
- [Adaptive Social Force Window Planner with Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.13678/) (2024)
- [FreeAskWorld: An Interactive and Closed-Loop Simulator for Human-Centric Embodied AI](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.13524/) (2025)
- [CN-CBF: Composite Neural Control Barrier Function for Robot Navigation in Dynamic Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.06921/) (2026)
- [SocRATES: Towards Automated Scenario-based Testing of Social Navigation Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.19595/) (2024)
- [A Comparative Study of Human Motion Models in Reinforcement Learning Algorithms for Social Robot Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.15127/) (2025)
- [Do World Models Make Better Robots? A Survey of Evaluation Benchmarks for Predictive Embodied Intelligence](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.29669/) (2026)
- [SoGuDiff: Socially Guided Diffusion for Steerable, Norm-Grounded Robot Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.30560/) (2026)
- [Learning Social Navigation from Internet Videos in the Policy State Space](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.37476/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

This work presents the Human Navigation Simulator (HuNavSim), a novel open-source tool for the simulation of different human-agent navigation behaviors in scenarios with mobile robots. The tool, the first programmed under the ROS 2 framework, can be employed along with different well-known robotics simulators like Gazebo. The main goal is to ease the development and evaluation of human-aware robot navigation systems in simulation. Besides a general human-navigation model, HuNavSim includes, as a novelty, a rich set of individual and realistic human navigation behaviors and a complete set of metrics for social navigation benchmarking.