Compact Bellman-Grounded Cognitive Maps for Cost-Aware Navigation
Quick summary
arXiv:2609.05104v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Biological agents navigate familiar environments not by re-solving routes for each new goal, but by reusing a learned map built once and read off as goals change. Existing artificial cognitive-map models mimic this reuse, yet their guidance is not explicitly grounded in additive heterogeneous route costs. Furthermore, they often struggle with memory efficiency: representative state-indexed and high-rank spectral constructions incur substantial storage growth as the environment scales. We present BCM, which grounds a reusable cognitive map in loca
Key takeaways
- arXiv:2609.05104v1 Announce Type: new Abstract: Biological agents navigate familiar environments not by re-solving routes for each new goal, but by reusing a learned map built once and read off as goals change.
- Existing artificial cognitive-map models mimic this reuse, yet their guidance is not explicitly grounded in additive heterogeneous route costs.
- Furthermore, they often struggle with memory efficiency: representative state-indexed and high-rank spectral constructions incur substantial storage growth as the environment scales.
Why it matters
The importance of “Compact Bellman-Grounded Cognitive Maps for Cost-Aware Navigation” will be measured by what changes in practice. User behavior, access conditions, verifiable performance and responsible-use outcomes are the signals worth following.

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