Related papers: Path Planning and Navigation Inside Off-World Lava…
Exploring lunar lava tubes requires robots to traverse without human intervention. Because pre-trained policies cannot fully cover all possible terrain conditions, our goal is to enable adaptive policy switching, where the robot selects an…
The ability to autonomously navigate in unknown environments is important for mobile robots. The map is the core component to achieve this. Most map representations rely on drift-free state estimation and provide a global metric map to…
Celestial bodies such as the Moon and Mars are mainly covered by loose, granular soil, a notoriously challenging terrain to traverse with (wheeled) robotic systems. Here, we present experimental work on traversing steep, granular slopes…
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle-Manipulator systems (AUVMS) is a new tool for ocean exploration, the AUVMS path planning problem is addressed in this paper. AUVMS is a high dimension system with a large difference in inertia distribution,…
The potential of Martian lava tubes for resource extraction and habitat sheltering highlights the need for robots capable to undertake the grueling task of their exploration. Driven by this motivation, in this work we introduce a legged…
In robotic applications, a key requirement for safe and efficient motion planning is the ability to map obstacle-free space in unknown, cluttered 3D environments. However, commodity-grade RGB-D cameras commonly used for sensing fail to…
This paper presents a comprehensive overview of exploration strategies utilized in both 2D and 3D environments, focusing on autonomous multi-robot systems designed for building exploration and fire detection. We explore the limitations of…
This paper introduces a graph-based, potential-guided method for path planning problems in unknown environments, where obstacles are unknown until the robots are in close proximity to the obstacle locations. Inspired by optimal transport…
An efficient characterization of scientifically significant locations is essential prior to the return of humans to the Moon. The highest resolution imagery acquired from orbit of south-polar shadowed regions and other relevant locations…
This paper presents a trade study analysis to design and evaluate the perception system architecture for ReachBot. ReachBot is a novel robotic concept that uses grippers at the end of deployable booms for navigation of rough terrain such as…
Search and rescue with a team of heterogeneous mobile robots in unknown and large-scale underground environments requires high-precision localization and mapping. This crucial requirement is faced with many challenges in complex and…
With advancements in low-cost launchers and small interplanetary spacecraft, NASA has recognized the potential of small missions to perform focused planetary science investigations at Mars and Venus. The EscaPADE, part of the NASA SIMPLEx…
Path planning for robotic exploration is challenging, requiring reasoning over unknown spaces and anticipating future observations. Efficient exploration requires selecting budget-constrained paths that maximize information gain. Despite…
The resurgence of lunar operations requires advancements in cislunar navigation and Space Situational Awareness (SSA). Challenges associated to these tasks have created an interest in autonomous planning, navigation, and tracking…
Autonomous navigation in off-road environments remains a significant challenge in field robotics, particularly for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) tasked with search and rescue, exploration, and surveillance. Effective long-range planning…
Quadrupeds are strong candidates for navigating challenging environments because of their agile and dynamic designs. This paper presents a methodology that extends the range of exploration for quadrupedal robots by creating an end-to-end…
Approximately seventy-one percent of the Earth is covered in water. Of that area, ninety-five percent of the ocean has never been explored or mapped. There are several engineering challenges that have prevented the exploration of the deep…
Navigating dynamic and unstructured environments poses significant challenges for autonomous robots, particularly due to the uncertainty introduced by occluded areas. Conventional sensing methods often fail to detect obstacles hidden behind…
We propose a framework for resilient autonomous navigation in perceptually challenging unknown environments with mobility-stressing elements such as uneven surfaces with rocks and boulders, steep slopes, negative obstacles like cliffs and…
Although wheeled robots have been predominant for planetary exploration, their geometry limits their capabilities when traveling over steep slopes, through rocky terrains, and in microgravity. Legged robots equipped with grippers are a…