[2603.24241] C-STEP: Continuous Space-Time Empowerment for Physics-informed Safe Reinforcement Learning of Mobile Agents

Electrical Engineering and Systems Science > Systems and Control arXiv:2603.24241 (eess) [Submitted on 25 Mar 2026] Title:C-STEP: Continuous Space-Time Empowerment for Physics-informed Safe Reinforcement Learning of Mobile Agents Authors:Guihlerme Daubt, Adrian Redder View a PDF of the paper titled C-STEP: Continuous Space-Time Empowerment for Physics-informed Safe Reinforcement Learning of Mobile Agents, by Guihlerme Daubt and 1 other authors View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract:Safe navigation in complex environments remains a central challenge for reinforcement learning (RL) in robotics. This paper introduces Continuous Space-Time Empowerment for Physics-informed (C-STEP) safe RL, a novel measure of agent-centric safety tailored to deterministic, continuous domains. This measure can be used to design physics-informed intrinsic rewards by augmenting positive navigation reward functions. The reward incorporates the agents internal states (e.g., initial velocity) and forward dynamics to differentiate safe from risky behavior. By integrating C-STEP with navigation rewards, we obtain an intrinsic reward function that jointly optimizes task completion and collision avoidance. Numerical results demonstrate fewer collisions, reduced proximity to obstacles, and only marginal increases in travel time. Overall, C-STEP offers an interpretable, physics-informed approach to reward shaping in RL, contributing to safety for agentic mobile robotic systems. Subjects: Systems and Control...