Publications

Research Publications

Our team has contributed 15+ papers at top venues including NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, ACL, and more.

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, and Eva Wiese

IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2025, Hangzhou, ChinaIROS 2025, Hangzhou, ChinaIROS2025-10-01

BenchmarkingSocial NavigationCollaboration

Code

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, and Harold Soh

Robotics Science and Systems 2025, Los Angeles, USARobotics Science and Systems 2025, Los Angeles, USA2025-04-01

PhotorealisticROS2Simulation

Paper Code Video

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, and Harold Soh

IEEE IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2025, Atlanta, USAIEEE ICRA 2025, Atlanta, USAICRA2024-09-01

Human-CentricROS2AI Generation

Preprint Code

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, NetherlandsRobotics Science and Systems 2024, Delft, Netherlands2024-02-01

Social NavigationCollaborationDynamics

Paper Code Video

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

IEEE/RSJ IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2023, Detroit, USAIEEE/RSJ IROS 2023, Detroit, USAIROS2023-06-01

PlatformBenchmarkingDynamic Environments

Preprint Code Video

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, KoreaRobotics: Science and Systems 2023, Daegu, Korea2023-03-01

Web PlatformDevelopmentBenchmarking

Spotlight talk + one of six demos in main hall

Paper Webapp Video

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

IEEE RA-L + IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2022, Kyoto, JapanIEEE RA-L + IROS 2022, Kyoto, JapanIROS2022-10-01

BenchmarkingObstacle AvoidanceDynamic

Preprint Code Video

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

Linh Kästner, Johannes Cox, Teham Buiyan, Jens Lambrecht

IEEE IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2022, Philadelphia, USAIEEE ICRA 2022, Philadelphia, USAICRA2022-05-01

Deep RLNavigationControl

Preprint Code Video

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

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

IEEE IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) 2022, Philadelphia, USAIEEE ICRA 2022, Philadelphia, USAICRA2022-05-01

SafetyCrowdsSemantic DRL

Preprint Code Video

Spatial Imagination With Semantic Cognition for Mobile Robots

Zhengcheng Shen, Linh Kästner, Jens Lambrecht

IEEE/RSJ IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2021, Prague, Czech RepublicIEEE/RSJ IROS 2021, Prague, Czech RepublicIROS2021-06-01

SemanticCognitionSpatial AI

Nominated for Best Technical Paper Award

Preprint Code

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 and Jens Lambrecht

IEEE/RSJ IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2021, Prague, Czech RepublicIEEE/RSJ IROS 2021, Prague, Czech RepublicIROS2021-06-01

Deep RLDeploymentNavigation

Preprint Code Video

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

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

IEEE/RSJ IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2021, Prague, Czech RepublicIEEE/RSJ IROS 2021, Prague, Czech RepublicIROS2021-06-01

WaypointDeep RLPlanning

Preprint Code

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

Linh Kästner, Cornelius Marx, Jens Lambrecht

IEEE/RSJ IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2020, Las Vegas, USAIEEE/RSJ IROS 2020, Las Vegas, USAIROS2020-08-01

2D SimulationDeep RLNavigation

Paper Code