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From Language to Logic: A Theoretical Architecture for VLM-Grounded Safe Navigation

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arXiv:2605.04327v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: We propose an architecture for integrating high-level, human-provided safety rules and operator-aligned semantic preferences into autonomous robot navigation in unstructured outdoor environments. In our approach, natural-language rules are translated into Signal Temporal Logic (STL) specifications that guide planning and navigation during runtime. Persistent, environment-centric rules and terrain preferences are grounded into a 2D cost map, while temporally dynamic requirements are expressed as STL specifications to be monitored during runtime. We hypothesize the use of Vision-Language Models (VLMs) for zero-shot scene understanding, enabling mapping between human instructions, semantic features, and environmental constraints. Within this fr…

SourcearXiv RoboticsAuthor: Kristy Sakano, Kalonji Harrington, Mumu Xu
From Language to Logic: A Theoretical Architecture for VLM-Grounded Safe Navigation
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[2605.04327] From Language to Logic: A Theoretical Architecture for VLM-Grounded Safe Navigation

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Computer Science > Robotics

arXiv:2605.04327 (cs)

[Submitted on 5 May 2026]

Title:From Language to Logic: A Theoretical Architecture for VLM-Grounded Safe Navigation

Authors:Kristy Sakano, Kalonji Harrington, Mumu Xu

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Abstract:We propose an architecture for integrating high-level, human-provided safety rules and operator-aligned semantic preferences into autonomous robot navigation in unstructured outdoor environments. In our approach, natural-language rules are translated into Signal Temporal Logic (STL) specifications that guide planning and navigation during runtime. Persistent, environment-centric rules and terrain preferences are grounded into a 2D cost map, while temporally dynamic requirements are expressed as STL specifications to be monitored during runtime. We hypothesize the use of Vision-Language Models (VLMs) for zero-shot scene understanding, enabling mapping between human instructions, semantic features, and environmental constraints. Within this framework, we construct an illustrative navigation model that is designed to satisfy a set of STL-encoded specifications and soft operator preferences through formal satisfaction metrics embedded into environmental properties and runtime monitoring.

Comments: 8 pages, 3 figures, to be published in ICUAS 2026 conference proceedings

Subjects:

Robotics (cs.RO)

Cite as: arXiv:2605.04327 [cs.RO]

(or arXiv:2605.04327v1 [cs.RO] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2605.04327

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arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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From: Kristy Sakano [view email] [v1] Tue, 5 May 2026 22:16:26 UTC (17,583 KB)

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Key points

  • Proposes an architecture that converts natural language safety rules into Signal Temporal Logic (STL) to guide robot navigation.
  • Uses Vision-Language Models (VLMs) for zero-shot scene understanding, mapping human instructions to semantic features and constraints.
  • Embeds formal satisfaction metrics into environmental properties and runtime monitoring to enforce safety.
  • Provides a theoretical framework for explainable and safe autonomous navigation in outdoor unstructured settings.

Highlights and analysis are generated automatically and may contain errors. Check the original source.