REACH is a reinforcement‑learning based hierarchical framework that allows a Unitree G1 humanoid robot to navigate confined spaces by switching between variable‑height bipedal walking and crawling. The system learns policies that adjust body height from 1.27 m down to 0.20 m, uses a history‑conditioned latent representation to handle contact‑rich crawling dynamics, and incorporates a bidirectional transition policy to connect the two locomotion modes. A LiDAR‑based planner generates collision‑free 3D paths and proactive height targets, and real‑world tests confirm accurate height and velocity tracking, robust terrain traversal, and reliable mode transitions.
By Shengzhang Xu, Yuning Guo, Weiyi Hu, Yifeng Xu, Zhongyu Li, He Kong
arXiv:2606. 08253v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Enabling humanoid robots to operate in complex, dynamic environments remains a critical challenge, fundamentally limited by the ability to navigate robustly, safely, and accurately.
By Alessandro Montenegro, Shihao Li, Puze Liu, Alberto Maria Metelli, Jan Peters
arXiv:2509. 26633v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: A dominant paradigm for teaching humanoid robots complex skills is to retarget human motions as kinematic references to train reinforcement learning (RL) policies.
By Lujie Yang, Xiaoyu Huang, Zhen Wu, Angjoo Kanazawa, Pieter Abbeel, Carmelo Sferrazza, C. Karen Liu, Rocky Duan, Guanya Shi
The paper introduces ASTRIL-MPC, a language‑guided neural model predictive control framework that enables articulated tracked robots to navigate complex, contact‑rich urban environments such as stairwells and cluttered interiors. By combining a learned kinematics model that predicts short‑horizon state changes, an optimization‑based planner with multi‑objective costs, and a large language model that safely updates control weights, the system achieves up to 71% better traversal quality than non‑adaptive NMPC and 67% better than a PPO baseline, while eliminating collision impacts during descent. Real‑robot trials over four indoor obstacles confirm the method’s transferability to physical contact‑rich traversal.
By Zhenfeng Gan, Yanbo Chen, Lirong Che, Yongyi Ma, Rongkai Zhu, Xueqian Wang
arXiv:2609.13083v2 Announce Type: replace-cross
Abstract: In urban search and rescue, articulated tracked robots (ATRs) must traverse structured but contact-rich environments such as stairwells and c...
By Zhenfeng Gan, Yanbo Chen, Lirong Che, Junbo Tan, Xueqian Wang
arXiv:2601.07718v2 Announce Type: replace-cross
Abstract: Achieving robust humanoid locomotion in complex, unstructured environments requires transitioning from reactive proprioception to proactive p...
By Shaoting Zhu, Ziwen Zhuang, Mengjie Zhao, Kun-Ying Lee, Hang Zhao
arXiv:2609.09158v1 Announce Type: cross
Abstract: We study the problem of navigating cluttered indoor environments with a humanoid robot. Unlike conventional methods that model navigation as a 2D pat...
By Anqi Li, Yuxin Chen, Zhaobo Li, Zhuo Cao, Junli Ren, Masayoshi Tomizuka, Dhruv Shah
arXiv:2603. 13707v3 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Humanoid loco-manipulation requires coordinated task-space motion planning with stable loco-manipulation command tracking under complex robot-environment dynamics and long-horizon tasks.
By Zhaoyuan Gu, Yipu Chen, Zimeng Chai, Alfred Cueva, Thong Nguyen, Yifan Wu, Huishu Xue, Minji Kim, Isaac Legene, Fukang Liu, KyoungMok Kim, Ayan Barula, Yongxin Chen, Ye Zhao
The paper introduces InterTrack, a behavior world model that enables humanoid robots to perform robust whole-body tracking while interacting with varied terrain and objects. Using a Transformer architecture, InterTrack predicts actions, states, and behavior distributions conditioned on the environment, and it is trained with an automated pipeline that reconstructs 3D support geometry from retargeted motions. The system achieves an 81.3% success rate on terrain interaction, a 99.3% fall-recovery rate, and outperforms leading baselines in both free-space tracking and cross-terrain scenarios.
By Ziyang Cheng, Tianshu Tang, Jinxin Lan, Xinze Chen, Yuhan Gong, Zhichao Liu, Changzhong Wu, Yahao Mao, Zongyan Deng, Mingxuan Ma, Huasen Xi, Yilong Liu, Yutong Wu, Xiaofeng Wang, Borui Zhang, Bingyao Yu, Yang Wang, Yun Ye, Guan Huang, Xiaojie Jin, Zheng Zhu, Jiwen Lu
FootQuery is a perceptive locomotion framework that retrieves depth information from a robot’s own history by querying each foot’s predicted next touchdown. The policy uses proprioceptive predictions of touchdown locations and uncertainties to sample relevant historical depth frames, fuses these per‑foot features with global visual memory, and generates control actions. In simulation and on a real Unitree G1 robot, FootQuery enables continuous traversal of complex outdoor stairs, indoor routes, platforms, and gaps, outperforming component ablations.
By Tao Dong, Jia Yu, Yuxuan Fan, Linna Zhao, Jiaqi Gong, Andong Yang, Chao Gao, Guyue Zhou
arXiv:2606. 27581v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: Current humanoid reinforcement-learning policies excel at free-space motions but struggle with contact-rich tasks, as pure kinematic tracking cannot resolve the physical ambiguities of interacting with objects and uneven terrain.
By Sirui Chen, Shibo Zhao, Zhen Wu, Jiaman Li, Guanya Shi, C. Karen Liu
arXiv:2607. 07370v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: In embodied intelligence systems, the motion controller serves as the critical bridge between semantic reasoning and physical execution.
By Xufeng Zhao, Fuzhi Yang, Jianhui Chen, Li Gao, Zhang Meng, Jie Gao, Yao Zheng, Wenyu Liu, Menglin Yang, Minqi Gu, Yaru Zhao, Honglin Han, Shihui Su, Zixiao Tang, Liu Liu, Mu Xu, Yang Cai, Wenbin Tang