{"id":294,"date":"2025-12-22T16:35:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/?p=294"},"modified":"2025-12-22T16:53:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T16:53:02","slug":"robust-localization-mapping-and-navigation-for-quadruped-robots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/?p=294","title":{"rendered":"Robust Localization, Mapping, and Navigation for Quadruped Robots"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Navigation is challenging for quadruped robots. This is even more problematic when using small robots, where we have to mount cheap sensors due to payload and cost reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The problem gets even more challenging if we are using policies learned with <strong>Reinforcement Learning<\/strong>: these policies are robust, but may cause jerky movements, causing localization loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As perception is a fundamental component of INTENTION, we decided to tackle this problem, in collaboration with Prof. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.unimi.it\/it\/ugov\/person\/matteo-luperto\">Matteo Luperto<\/a> at Universit\u00e0 Degli Studi di Milano and with our visiting scholar, <a href=\"https:\/\/dyumanaditya.github.io\/\">Dyuman Aditya<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"983\" height=\"619\" src=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/system.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"object-fit:cover;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/system.jpeg 983w, https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/system-300x189.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/system-768x484.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 983px) 100vw, 983px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Our system leverages data from&nbsp;<strong>low-cost sensors<\/strong>\u2014including an RGB-D camera, an IMU, and joint encoders\u2014augmented by<strong>&nbsp;scan stabilization&nbsp;<\/strong>and&nbsp;<strong>leg odometry <\/strong>modules to achieve accurate localization and mapping. These modules are essential for quadruped robots equipped with reactive, high-speed controllers to effectively navigate complex 2D environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The LO module requires contact sensors mounted on the legs of the robot. However, for platforms lacking these sensors, we provide a dedicated contact estimation module.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Results<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Our results show good performance in terms of localization, mapping, navigation, and exploration in simulated environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"630\" height=\"586\" data-id=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/trajectory_warerhouse-2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/trajectory_warerhouse-2.png 630w, https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/trajectory_warerhouse-2-300x279.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"429\" height=\"637\" data-id=\"299\" src=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/map_warehouse-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-299\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/map_warehouse-1.png 429w, https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/map_warehouse-1-202x300.png 202w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 429px) 100vw, 429px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>We also validated our mapping results in the real world, including extremely cluttered environments such as the lab at PUT:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"539\" src=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/put_lab-1024x539.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-301\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/put_lab-1024x539.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/put_lab-300x158.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/put_lab-768x404.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/put_lab.jpeg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>And we were still able to achieve good mapping results, particularly if compared with the baselines:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"390\" src=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/put_map-1024x390.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-302\" srcset=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/put_map-1024x390.png 1024w, https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/put_map-300x114.png 300w, https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/put_map-768x293.png 768w, https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/put_map.png 1155w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Our system allows quadruped robots to explore autonomously complex environment withouth too many issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/sb-house-edit.mp4\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">More info<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>If you are interested in knowing more about this project, take a look at<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Our ECMR 2025 paper: <a href=\"https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2505.02272\">https:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2505.02272<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Our project website: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/1Iv1ngqKa1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/sites.google.com\/view\/low-cost-quadruped-slam<\/a> <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Our open source stack: <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/dyumanaditya\/quad-stack\">https:\/\/github.com\/dyumanaditya\/quad-stack<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Navigation is challenging for quadruped robots. This is even more problematic when using small robots, where we have to mount cheap sensors due to payload and cost reasons. The problem gets even more challenging if we are using policies learned with Reinforcement Learning: these policies are robust, but may cause jerky movements, causing localization loss. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316,"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions\/316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intention.put.poznan.pl\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}