Anytime Global Tensor Motion Planning

Abstract

Global Tensor Motion Planning (GTMP) solves motion planning with batched tensor operations over a layered multipartite graph. We generalize GTMP so that adjacent-layer edges are realized by any black-box local planner (e.g., linear interpolation, splines, sampling-based planning, trajectory optimization, or generative sampling). We provide two anytime policies on top of this generalization: Anytime GTMP with random restarts at a fixed budget, which covers every homotopy class almost surely, and AO-GTMP with informed expansion with growing budgets, which converges to the optimal cost. We prove that a single sampled graph covers every endpoint-fixed homotopy class admitting a \(δ\)-clear representative of bounded length. We also prove that additional samples per layer reduce the per-layer miss probability exponentially, whereas stronger local planners reduce the required layer count only sublinearly. On manipulation benchmarks the method matches state-of-the-art performance, and on 2D navigation it returns batches of topologically diverse solutions, while the informed baselines concentrate on one or two classes.

8 pages, 5 figures. Code: https://github.com/commalab/anytime_gtmp.git