Social robot navigation: a review and benchmarking of learning-based methods

Abstract

For autonomous mobile robots to operate effectively in human environments, navigation must extend beyond obstacle avoidance to incorporate social awareness. Safe and fluid interaction in shared spaces requires the ability to interpret human motion and adapt to social norms-an area that is being reshaped by advances in learning-based methods. This review examines recent progress in learning-based social navigation methods that deal with the complexities of human-robot coexistence. We introduce a taxonomy of navigation methods and analyze core system components, including realistic training environments and objectives that promote socially compliant behavior. We conduct a comprehensive benchmark of existing frameworks in challenging crowd scenarios, showing their advantages and shortcomings, while providing critical insights into the architectural choices that impact performance. We find that many learning-based approaches outperform model-based methods in realistic coordination scenarios such as navigating doorways. A key highlight is the end-to-end models, which achieve strong performance by directly planning from raw sensor input, enabling more efficient and adaptive navigation. This review also maps current trends and outlines ongoing challenges, offering a strategic roadmap for future research. We emphasize the need for models that accurately anticipate human movement, training environments that realistically simulate crowded spaces, and evaluation methods that capture real-world complexity. Advancing these areas will help overcome current limitations and move social navigation systems closer to safe, reliable deployment in everyday environments. Additional resources are available at: https://socialnavigation.github.io.