arXiv AI

Learning Energy-Efficient Air--Ground Actuation for Hybrid Robots on Stair-Like Terrain

arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 16

LoComposition: Terrain-Adaptive Energy-Efficient Quadruped Locomotion without Gait Priors

arXiv:2606. 15896v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Learning-based quadrupedal locomotion typically relies on complex reward formulations that entangle task specification, operational limits, gait preference, and terrain adaptation within a single optimization objective.

By Loukas Kordos, Leonard T. Franz, Simon Rappenecker, Oliver Hausdoerfer, Angela P. Schoellig, Pavel Kolev, Georg Martius
arXiv AI
Aug 10

Learning to Walk With Less: A Dyna-Style Approach to Quadrupedal Locomotion

arXiv:2509. 06296v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Traditional on-policy reinforcement learning (RL) controllers for quadrupedal locomotion often suffer from low data efficiency, requiring millions of interactions with simulated environments to achieve stable control.

By Francisco Affonso, Felipe Tommaselli, Jo\~ao H. Al\'essio, Vivian S. Medeiros, Mateus V. Gasparino, Girish Chowdhary, Marcelo Becker
arXiv AI
Jul 23

PGTT: Phase-Guided Terrain Traversal for Perceptive Legged Locomotion

arXiv:2510. 18348v2 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: State-of-the-art perceptive Reinforcement Learning controllers for legged robots typically either (i) impose oscillator-or IK-based gait priors that constrain the action space, bias policy optimization, and limit adaptability across robot morphologies, or (ii) operate "blind," making them unable to anticipate hind-leg terrain and brittle to observation noise.

By Alexandros Ntagkas, Chairi Kiourt, Konstantinos Chatzilygeroudis
arXiv Machine Learning
Jun 8

Learning All-Terrain Locomotion for a Planetary Rover with Actively Articulated Suspension

arXiv:2606. 06790v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: This paper presents ERNEST, a four-wheeled planetary rover concept equipped with a two-degree-of-freedom Active Gimbal Suspension that combines yaw and roll actuation to enable wheel reconfiguration, steering, and active load redistribution.

By Arthur Bouton, Tristan D. Hasseler, Michael Paton, Travis Brown, Jacob Levy, William Reid, Joshua Martin, Hari Nayar
arXiv AI
Jul 16

Agile perceptive multi-skill locomotion for quadrupedal robots in the wild

arXiv:2607. 13579v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Enabling quadrupedal robots to traverse complex terrains-from rugged outdoor environments to urban landscapes-requires seamless integration of multiple motor skills, smooth transitions between gaits, and high-speed perceptive locomotion using only onboard sensors.

By Jun-Gill Kang, Jaehyun Park, Tae-Gyu Song, Joon-Ha Kim, Seungwoo Hong, Hae-Won Park
arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 18

GLAMDRING: Gait Learning And Morphology co-Design via Reinforcement LearnING of CPGs

GLAMDRING is a framework that jointly designs a quadruped robot’s morphology and its gait controller using reinforcement learning of Hopf-oscillator Central Pattern Generators (CPGs). Given specifications such as forward‑velocity bounds, actuator power budgets, an actuator library, and payload requirements, the system returns an optimized robot design and a corresponding gait policy, ranking designs by objectives like maximum speed, minimum Cost of Transport, or maximum payload margin. Experiments demonstrate that co‑designing body and gait is essential for meeting locomotion constraints, that actuator feasibility determines payload capacity, and that natural animal gaits emerge from the design process, with a real‑world demonstration confirming the approach’s effectiveness.

By Amogh Joshi, Kaushik Roy