Abstract
A system and a method for training and navigating a robot in an unmapped environment is disclosed. The method includes, training a movement model for the robot by recording and analyzing movement data of the robot as the robot moves over a plurality of walks within an environment, wherein the training is based on a mixed exploration strategy that incorporates a novelty-based exploration factor into a random exploration strategy, solving a planning task using the movement model, evaluating the movement model based on a planning error that represents a distance between the goal location and a final position reached by the robot on solving the planning task and navigating an unmapped environment including a source and a destination based on actions output by the trained movement model that successfully solves the planning task during the evaluation.