Towards Safe Imitation Learning via Potential Field-Guided Flow Matching

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ding, Haoran, Duan, Anqing, Sun, Zezhou, Rozo, Leonel, Jaquier, Noémie, Song, Dezhen, Nakamura, Yoshihiko
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Ding, Haoran
Duan, Anqing
Sun, Zezhou
Rozo, Leonel
Jaquier, Noémie
Song, Dezhen
Nakamura, Yoshihiko
author_facet Ding, Haoran
Duan, Anqing
Sun, Zezhou
Rozo, Leonel
Jaquier, Noémie
Song, Dezhen
Nakamura, Yoshihiko
contents Deep generative models, particularly diffusion and flow matching models, have recently shown remarkable potential in learning complex policies through imitation learning. However, the safety of generated motions remains overlooked, particularly in complex environments with inherent obstacles. In this work, we address this critical gap by proposing Potential Field-Guided Flow Matching Policy (PF2MP), a novel approach that simultaneously learns task policies and extracts obstacle-related information, represented as a potential field, from the same set of successful demonstrations. During inference, PF2MP modulates the flow matching vector field via the learned potential field, enabling safe motion generation. By leveraging these complementary fields, our approach achieves improved safety without compromising task success across diverse environments, such as navigation tasks and robotic manipulation scenarios. We evaluate PF2MP in both simulation and real-world settings, demonstrating its effectiveness in task space and joint space control. Experimental results demonstrate that PF2MP enhances safety, achieving a significant reduction of collisions compared to baseline policies. This work paves the way for safer motion generation in unstructured and obstaclerich environments.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_08707
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Safe Imitation Learning via Potential Field-Guided Flow Matching
Ding, Haoran
Duan, Anqing
Sun, Zezhou
Rozo, Leonel
Jaquier, Noémie
Song, Dezhen
Nakamura, Yoshihiko
Robotics
Deep generative models, particularly diffusion and flow matching models, have recently shown remarkable potential in learning complex policies through imitation learning. However, the safety of generated motions remains overlooked, particularly in complex environments with inherent obstacles. In this work, we address this critical gap by proposing Potential Field-Guided Flow Matching Policy (PF2MP), a novel approach that simultaneously learns task policies and extracts obstacle-related information, represented as a potential field, from the same set of successful demonstrations. During inference, PF2MP modulates the flow matching vector field via the learned potential field, enabling safe motion generation. By leveraging these complementary fields, our approach achieves improved safety without compromising task success across diverse environments, such as navigation tasks and robotic manipulation scenarios. We evaluate PF2MP in both simulation and real-world settings, demonstrating its effectiveness in task space and joint space control. Experimental results demonstrate that PF2MP enhances safety, achieving a significant reduction of collisions compared to baseline policies. This work paves the way for safer motion generation in unstructured and obstaclerich environments.
title Towards Safe Imitation Learning via Potential Field-Guided Flow Matching
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.08707