mlsanityData to 14 Oct 2026

EmoBipedNav: Emotion-aware Social Navigation for Bipedal Robots with Deep Reinforcement Learning

arXiv 2503.12538 ↗First posted 16 Mar 2025cs.RO cs.LGcited by 1

On the map: Deep reinforcement learning methods → RL for robot navigation and UAV control

Abstract (arXiv)

This study presents an emotion-aware navigation framework -- EmoBipedNav -- using deep reinforcement learning (DRL) for bipedal robots walking in socially interactive environments. The inherent locomotion constraints of bipedal robots challenge their safe maneuvering capabilities in dynamic environments. When combined with the intricacies of social environments, including pedestrian interactions and social cues, such as emotions, these challenges become even more pronounced. To address these coupled problems, we propose a two-stage pipeline that considers both bipedal locomotion constraints and complex social environments. Specifically, social navigation scenarios are represented using sequential LiDAR grid maps (LGMs), from which we extract latent features, including collision regions, emotion-related discomfort zones, social interactions, and the spatio-temporal dynamics of evolving environments. The extracted features are directly mapped to the actions of reduced-order models (ROMs) through a DRL architecture. Furthermore, the proposed framework incorporates full-order dynamics and locomotion constraints during training, effectively accounting for tracking errors and restrictions of the locomotion controller while planning the trajectory with ROMs. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate that our approach exceeds both model-based planners and DRL-based baselines. The hardware videos and open-source code are available at https://gatech-lidar.github.io/emobipednav.github.io/.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026). Placed in RL for robot navigation and UAV control, one of 15 directions in Deep reinforcement learning methods. Builds on 23 of its 55 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 16 Mar 2025.

Builds on

23 of 55 references.

References · 23

  1. 2018Soft Actor-Critic: Off-Policy Maximum Entropy Deep Reinforcement Learning with a Stochastic Actorcited by 4,885
  2. 2018Crowd-Robot Interaction: Crowd-aware Robot Navigation with Attention-based Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 175
  3. 2016Decentralized Non-communicating Multiagent Collision Avoidance with Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 118
  4. 2025Humanoid Locomotion and Manipulation: Current Progress and Challenges in Control, Planning, and Learningcited by 61
  5. 2019Relational Graph Learning for Crowd Navigationcited by 48
  6. 2023A Survey on Socially Aware Robot Navigation: Taxonomy and Future Challengescited by 39
  7. 2023DRL-VO: Learning to Navigate Through Crowded Dynamic Scenes Using Velocity Obstaclescited by 37
  8. 2020ProxEmo: Gait-based Emotion Learning and Multi-view Proxemic Fusion for Socially-Aware Robot Navigationcited by 17
  9. 2019Mapless Navigation among Dynamics with Social-safety-awareness: a reinforcement learning approach from 2D laser scanscited by 10
  10. 2021Integrated Task and Motion Planning for Safe Legged Navigation in Partially Observable Environmentscited by 8
  11. 2020EWareNet: Emotion Aware Human Intent Prediction and Adaptive Spatial Profile Fusion for Social Robot Navigationcited by 6
  12. 2021Autonomous Navigation of Underactuated Bipedal Robots in Height-Constrained Environmentscited by 5
11 more
  1. 2023Infer and Adapt: Bipedal Locomotion Reward Learning from Demonstrations via Inverse Reinforcement Learningcited by 5
  2. 2021Terrain-Adaptive, ALIP-Based Bipedal Locomotion Controller via Model Predictive Control and Virtual Constraintscited by 4
  3. 2022A Sequential MPC Approach to Reactive Planning for Bipedal Robotscited by 3
  4. 2018Reactive Task and Motion Planning for Robust Whole-Body Dynamic Locomotion in Constrained Environmentscited by 2
  5. 2020Towards Safe Locomotion Navigation in Partially Observable Environments with Uneven Terraincited by 2
  6. 2023A Transferability Metric Using Scene Similarity and Local Map Observation for DRL Navigationcited by 2
  7. 2017Robust Optimal Planning and Control of Non-Periodic Bipedal Locomotion with A Centroidal Momentum Modelcited by 1
  8. 2023Overtaking Moving Obstacles with Digit: Path Following for Bipedal Robots via Model Predictive Contouring Controlcited by 1
  9. 2024Bipedal Safe Navigation over Uncertain Rough Terrain: Unifying Terrain Mapping and Locomotion Stabilitycited by 1
  10. 2024Real-time Model Predictive Control with Zonotope-Based Neural Networks for Bipedal Social Navigationcited by 1
  11. 2024Socially Acceptable Bipedal Robot Navigation via Social Zonotope Network Model Predictive Controlcited by 1

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 14 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.

1 paper.

  1. 2026Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Collision-Free Locomotion of an Underactuated Bipedcited by 0

Similar, not cited

Close in wording, no citation either way

  1. 2025Socially aware navigation for mobile robots: a survey on deep reinforcement learning approaches
  2. 2024Socially Integrated Navigation: A Social Acting Robot with Deep Reinforcement Learning
  3. 2026TRANS: Terrain-aware Reinforcement Learning for Agile Navigation of Quadruped Robots under Social Interactions
  4. 2024Context-aware Mamba-based Reinforcement Learning for social robot navigation
  5. 2025SocialNav: Training Human-Inspired Foundation Model for Socially-Aware Embodied Navigation
  6. 2025SocialNav-Map: Dynamic Mapping with Human Trajectory Prediction for Zero-Shot Social Navigation
  7. 2026End-to-End Safe Social Navigation via Multi-Task Reinforcement Learning and Probabilistic Perception
  8. 2025Learning Implicit Social Navigation Behavior using Deep Inverse Reinforcement Learning