ArticleScience robotics2023
Learning quadrupedal locomotion on deformable terrain.
Article in Science robotics, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 142 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Unlocking fast robotic locomotor propulsion through dynamic spine-leg synergy.Science advances · 2026Article
- Online GP-MPC Command Supervision for Robust Reinforcement Learning-Based Quadruped Locomotion.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Influence of Longitudinal Center of Mass Position on Load Distribution in High-Speed Quadrupedal Locomotion.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Learning diverse natural behaviors for enhancing the agility of quadrupedal robots.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Inertia-driven amphibious robot with asymmetric microundulatory fin arrays.Science advances · 2026Article
- Article
- Adaptive locomotion of active solids.Nature · 2025Article
- A Computational Study on the Hydrodynamics of Bio-Inspired Quadrupedal Paddling.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- NeuroMechFly v2: simulating embodied sensorimotor control in adult Drosophila.Nature methods · 2024Article
- Moving in an Uncertain World: Robust and Adaptive Control of Locomotion from Organisms to Machine Intelligence.Integrative and comparative biology · 2024Review
- Learning agility and adaptive legged locomotion via curricular hindsight reinforcement learning.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Learning Soft Millirobot Multimodal Locomotion with Sim-to-Real Transfer.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2024Article
- Multimodal locomotion ultra-thin soft robots for exploration of narrow spaces.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Adaptive Gait Acquisition through Learning Dynamic Stimulus Instinct of Bipedal Robot.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Learning Quadrupedal High-Speed Running on Uneven Terrain.Biomimetics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Optimization method for human-robot command combinations of hexapod robot based on multi-objective constraints.Frontiers in neurorobotics · 2024Article
- Swift progress for robots over complex terrain.Nature · 2023Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Simulation-based reinforcement learning approaches are leading the next innovations in legged robot control. However, the resulting control policies are still not applicable on soft and deformable terrains, especially at high speed. The primary reason is that reinforcement learning approaches, in general, are not effective beyond the data distribution: The agent cannot perform well in environments that it has not experienced. To this end, we introduce a versatile and computationally efficient granular media model for reinforcement learning. Our model can be parameterized to represent diverse types of terrain from very soft beach sand to hard asphalt. In addition, we introduce an adaptive control architecture that can implicitly identify the terrain properties as the robot feels the terrain. The identified parameters are then used to boost the locomotion performance of the legged robot. We applied our techniques to the Raibo robot, a dynamic quadrupedal robot developed in-house. The trained networks demonstrated high-speed locomotion capabilities on deformable terrains: The robot was able to run on soft beach sand at 3.03 meters per second although the feet were completely buried in the sand during the stance phase. We also demonstrate its ability to generalize to different terrains by presenting running experiments on vinyl tile flooring, athletic track, grass, and a soft air mattress.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.