Kuanqi Cai

About

Kuanqi Cai is a robotics researcher specializing in mobile robot navigation, motion planning, and autonomous systems operating in complex, human-populated environments. His work addresses one of the most pressing challenges in modern robotics: enabling robots to navigate safely and efficiently alongside humans in dynamic, crowded spaces such as airports, shopping malls, and public transit hubs. Cai's most influential contributions include a widely cited survey on mobile robot path planning in dynamic environments (43 citations) and a comprehensive review of sampling-based motion planning algorithms (41 citations), both of which have become valuable references for the robotics community. His research extends into risk-aware planning under uncertainty, human-aware navigation incorporating social norms, and crowd-flow modeling through innovative frameworks like FlowBot. Notably, his development of the FDIT* algorithm and the Estimated Informed Anytime Search approach demonstrates a strong commitment to advancing the efficiency of high-dimensional planning problems. With over 180 cumulative citations across a decade of research, Cai has established himself as a meaningful contributor to both theoretical and applied robotics. His interdisciplinary approach—blending probabilistic reasoning, social robotics, and algorithmic innovation—makes his work particularly relevant for researchers and students navigating the rapidly evolving landscape of autonomous robot systems.

Research Focus

Key Achievements

Top Papers

1. 1
   Mobile Robot Path Planning in Dynamic Environments: A Survey

   43 citations · 2020
2. 2
   Motion planning for robotics: A review for sampling-based planners

   41 citations · 2025
3. 3
   Risk-Aware Path Planning Under Uncertainty in Dynamic Environments

   28 citations · 2021
4. 4
   Human-Aware Path Planning With Improved Virtual Doppler Method in Highly Dynamic Environments

   22 citations · 2022
5. 5
   Sampling-Based Path Planning in Highly Dynamic and Crowded Pedestrian Flow

   14 citations · 2023
6. 6
   Curiosity-based Robot Navigation under Uncertainty in Crowded Environments

   10 citations · 2022
7. 7
   Elliptical K-Nearest Neighbors - Path Optimization via Coulomb’s Law and Invalid Vertices in C-space Obstacles

   10 citations · 2024
8. 8
   A Vision-Based Road Surface Slope Estimation Algorithm for Mobile Service Robots in Indoor Environments

   8 citations · 2018
9. 9
   FlowBot: Flow-based Modeling for Robot Navigation

   7 citations · 2022
10. 10
    Estimated Informed Anytime Search for Sampling-Based Planning via Adaptive Sampler

    6 citations · 2025

Key Collaborators

Contact & Links