Publications

Research Publications

Our team has contributed over 50 papers at the leading robotics venues, mainly ICRA, IROS, RSS and RA-L. Recent work on generative world models, pedestrian simulation and long-term semantic navigation appeared at NeurIPS 2026, IROS 2026 and ICRA 2026.

First authorJiaming Wang

Change-Robust Online Topological Memory for Long-Term Relocalization and Semantic Navigation

Jiaming Wang, Jizhuo Chen, Diwen Liu, Atharva Ghotavadekar, Jiaxuan Da, Linh Kästner, Harold Soh

NeurIPS 2026Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS) 2026, Sydney, Australia

NavigationSemanticSpatial AI

Website Paper arXiv Code Dataset

First authorDuc Tai Nguyen

PEDS: Closed-Loop Benchmarking of Social Navigation across Pedestrian Behavior Models

Duc Tai Nguyen, Volodymyr Shcherbyna, Anh Do Duc, Zhengcheng Shen, Linh Kästner

RA-L + ICRA 2027IEEE RA-L + IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2027, Seoul, South Korea

BenchmarkingSocial NavigationCrowdsSimulation

Website Paper Code Dataset Video

First authorAnh Duc Do

D3D-GEN: Robot-Aware Domain-Grounded Interactive 3D World Generation for Social Robotics

Anh Duc Do, Volodymyr Shcherbyna, Tai Duc Nguyen, Spaarsh Thakkar, Zhengcheng Shen, Teham Buiyan, Archan Misra, Linh Kästner

IROS 2026IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2026, Pittsburgh, USA

AI GenerationSimulationSocial Navigation

Paper arXiv

First authorDuc Tai Nguyen

GROVE: Grounded Pedestrian Simulation via Natural Language for Interactive Social Robot Navigation

Duc Tai Nguyen, Volodymyr Shcherbyna, Anh Do Duc, Zhengcheng Shen, Teham Buiyan, Linh Kästner

IROS 2026IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2026, Pittsburgh, USA

Social NavigationSimulationCrowds

Paper arXiv

First authorJiaming Wang

TOPO-Bench: An Open-Source Topological Mapping Evaluation Framework with Quantifiable Perceptual Aliasing

Jiaming Wang, Jizhuo Chen, Diwen Liu, Jiaxuan Da, Jiamo Hu, Zhiwei Xue, Linh Kästner, Harold Soh

ICRA 2026IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2026, Vienna, Austria

BenchmarkingNavigationSpatial AI

Paper arXiv

First authorVolodymyr Shcherbyna

Arena-Bench 2.0: A Comprehensive Benchmark of Social Navigation Approaches in Collaborative Environments

Volodymyr Shcherbyna, Linh Kästner, Huajian Zeng, Jiaming Wang, Nhan Trinh, Zhengchen Shen, Giang Nguyen Huu Truong, Tim Lenz, Duc Anh Do, Ahmed Martban, Eva Wiese

IROS 2025IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2025, Hangzhou, China

BenchmarkingSocial NavigationCollaboration

Code

First authorVolodymyr Shcherbyna

Arena-Rosnav 5.0: A Photorealistic ROS2 Simulation Framework for Developing and Benchmarking Social Navigation

Volodymyr Shcherbyna, Linh Kästner, Huajian Zeng, Giang Nguyen Huu Truong, Tim Lenz, Nam Truong Tran, Ahmed Martban, Harold Soh

Robotics Science and Systems 2025, Los Angeles, USA

PhotorealisticROS2Simulation

Paper arXiv Code Video

First authorVolodymyr Shcherbyna

Arena-Rosnav 4.0: A Comprehensive ROS2 Platform for Human-Centric Navigation and AI-Enhanced Environment Generation

Volodymyr Shcherbyna, Linh Kästner, Huajian Zeng, Giang Nguyen Huu Truong, Maximilian Ho-Kyoung Schreff, Tim Lenz, Nam Truong Tran, Diego Diaz, Ahmed Martban, Jonas Kreutz, Harold Soh

ICRA 2025IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2025, Atlanta, USA

Human-CentricROS2AI Generation

arXiv Code

First authorLinh Kästner

Arena-Rosnav 3.0: Advancing Social Navigation in Collaborative and Highly Dynamic Environments

Linh Kästner, Volodymyr Shcherbyna, Huajian Zeng, Tuan Anh Le, Maximilian Ho-Kyoung Schreff, Halid Osmaev, Nam Truong Tran, Diego Diaz, Jan Golebiowski, Harold Soh, Jens Lambrecht

Robotics Science and Systems 2024, Delft, Netherlands

Social NavigationCollaborationDynamics

Paper Code Video

First authorLinh Kästner

Arena-Rosnav 2.0: A Development and Benchmarking Platform for Robot Navigation in Highly Dynamic Environments

Linh Kästner, Reyk Carstens, Huajian Zeng, Jacek Kmiecik, Tuan Anh Le, Teham Bhuiyan, Boris Meinardus, Jens Lambrecht

IROS 2023IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2023, Detroit, USA

PlatformBenchmarkingDynamic Environments

arXiv Code Video

First authorLinh Kästner

Arena-Web: A Web-based Development and Benchmarking Platform for Autonomous Navigation Approaches

Linh Kästner, Reyk Carstens, Christopher Liebig, Volodymyr Shcherbyna, Lena Nahrworld, Subhin Lee, Jens Lambrecht

Robotics: Science and Systems 2023, Daegu, Korea

Web PlatformDevelopmentBenchmarking

Spotlight talk + one of six demos in main hall

Website Paper Video

First authorLinh Kästner

Arena-Bench: A Benchmarking Suite for Obstacle Avoidance Approaches on Highly Dynamic Environments

Linh Kästner, Teham Buiyan, Tuan Anh Le, Reyk Carstens, Duc Pichel, Jacek Kmiecik, Elias Treis, Boris Meinardus, Bassel Fatloun, Niloufar Khorsadhi, Jens Lambrecht

RA-L + IROS 2022IEEE RA-L + IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2022, Kyoto, Japan

BenchmarkingObstacle AvoidanceDynamic

arXiv Code Video

First authorLinh Kästner

All-in-One: A DRL-based Control Switch Combining State-of-the-art Navigation Planners

Linh Kästner, Johannes Cox, Teham Buiyan, Jens Lambrecht

ICRA 2022IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2022, Philadelphia, USA

Deep RLNavigationControl

arXiv Code Video

First authorLinh Kästner

Enhancing Navigational Safety in Crowded Environments using Semantic-Deep-Reinforcement-Learning-based Navigation

Linh Kästner, Junhui Li, Bassel Fatloun, Daniel Gawrisch, Jens Lambrecht

ICRA 2022IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2022, Philadelphia, USA

SafetyCrowdsSemantic DRL

arXiv Code Video

First authorZhengcheng Shen

Spatial Imagination With Semantic Cognition for Mobile Robots

Zhengcheng Shen, Linh Kästner, Jens Lambrecht

IROS 2021IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2021, Prague, Czech Republic

SemanticCognitionSpatial AI

Nominated for Best Technical Paper Award

arXiv Code

First authorLinh Kästner

Connecting Deep-RL-based Obstacle Avoidance with Conventional Global Planners using Waypoint Generators

Linh Kästner, Teham Buiyan, Xinlin Zhao, Zhengcheng Shen, Jens Lambrecht

IROS 2021IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2021, Prague, Czech Republic

WaypointDeep RLPlanning

arXiv Code

First authorLinh Kästner

Arena-Rosnav: Towards Deployment of Deep-RL-Based Obstacle Avoidance into Conventional Autonomous Navigation Systems

Linh Kästner, Teham Buiyan, Xinlin Zhao, Lei Jiao, Zhengcheng Shen, Tuan Anh Le, Jens Lambrecht

IROS 2021IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2021, Prague, Czech Republic

Deep RLDeploymentNavigation

arXiv Code Video

First authorLinh Kästner

Arena2D - Deep-RL-Based Navigation in Highly Dynamic Environments

Linh Kästner, Cornelius Marx, Jens Lambrecht

IROS 2020IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2020, Las Vegas, USA

2D SimulationDeep RLNavigation

Paper Code

First authorLinh Kästner

A 3D-Deep-Learning-based Augmented Reality Calibration Method for Robotic Environments

Linh Kästner, Vlad Frasineanu, Jens Lambrecht

ICRA 2020IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2020, Paris, France

ARDeep LearningCalibration

Paper

First authorLinh Kästner

A Marker-Less AR-Calibration Method for Robotic Environments using RGB-Data

Linh Kästner, Daniel Dimitrov, Jens Lambrecht

UR 2019IEEE International Conference on Ubiquitous Robots (UR) 2019, Kyoto, Japan

ARMarkerlessRGB

Website Paper Video