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Related papers: Safe Reinforcement Learning for Legged Locomotion

200 papers

In this article, we show that learned policies can be applied to solve legged locomotion control tasks with extensive flight phases, such as those encountered in space exploration. Using an off-the-shelf deep reinforcement learning…

Robotics · Computer Science 2021-06-18 Nikita Rudin , Hendrik Kolvenbach , Vassilios Tsounis , Marco Hutter

We present a unified model-based and data-driven approach for quadrupedal planning and control to achieve dynamic locomotion over uneven terrain. We utilize on-board proprioceptive and exteroceptive feedback to map sensory information and…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-05-13 Siddhant Gangapurwala , Mathieu Geisert , Romeo Orsolino , Maurice Fallon , Ioannis Havoutis

Safety concerns during the operation of legged robots must be addressed to enable their widespread use. Machine learning-based control methods that use model-based constraints provide promising means to improve robot safety. This study…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-03-07 Berk Tosun , Evren Samur

This paper proposes a safe reinforcement learning (RL) framework based on forward-invariance-induced action-space design. The control problem is cast as a Markov decision process, but instead of relying on runtime shielding or penalty-based…

Systems and Control · Electrical Eng. & Systems 2026-04-10 Chieh Tsai , Muhammad Junayed Hasan Zahed , Salim Hariri , Hossein Rastgoftar

Quadruped robots have shown remarkable mobility on various terrains through reinforcement learning. Yet, in the presence of sparse footholds and risky terrains such as stepping stones and balance beams, which require precise foot placement…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-08-12 Chong Zhang , Nikita Rudin , David Hoeller , Marco Hutter

Legged robots pose one of the greatest challenges in robotics. Dynamic and agile maneuvers of animals cannot be imitated by existing methods that are crafted by humans. A compelling alternative is reinforcement learning, which requires…

Deep reinforcement learning produces robust locomotion policies for legged robots over challenging terrains. To date, few studies have leveraged model-based methods to combine these locomotion skills with the precise control of…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-01-12 Yuntao Ma , Farbod Farshidian , Takahiro Miki , Joonho Lee , Marco Hutter

We present a general, two-stage reinforcement learning approach to create robust policies that can be deployed on real robots without any additional training using a single demonstration generated by trajectory optimization. The…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-01-25 Miroslav Bogdanovic , Majid Khadiv , Ludovic Righetti

Sim-to-real transfer of locomotion policies often leads to performance degradation due to the inevitable sim-to-real gap. Naively fine-tuning these policies directly on hardware is problematic, as it poses risks of mechanical failure and…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-03-19 Elham Daneshmand , Shafeef Omar , Glen Berseth , Majid Khadiv , Hsiu-Chin Lin

Reliable and stable locomotion has been one of the most fundamental challenges for legged robots. Deep reinforcement learning (deep RL) has emerged as a promising method for developing such control policies autonomously. In this paper, we…

Robotics · Computer Science 2020-11-04 Sehoon Ha , Peng Xu , Zhenyu Tan , Sergey Levine , Jie Tan

Deep reinforcement learning is a promising approach to learning policies in uncontrolled environments that do not require domain knowledge. Unfortunately, due to sample inefficiency, deep RL applications have primarily focused on simulated…

Robotics · Computer Science 2022-08-17 Laura Smith , Ilya Kostrikov , Sergey Levine

Stable locomotion in precipitous environments is an essential task for quadruped robots, requiring the ability to resist various external disturbances. Recent neural policies enhance robustness against disturbances by learning to resist…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-06-13 Junfeng Long , Wenye Yu , Quanyi Li , Zirui Wang , Dahua Lin , Jiangmiao Pang

This paper presents a novel approach that combines the advantages of both model-based and learning-based frameworks to achieve robust locomotion. The residual modules are integrated with each corresponding part of the model-based framework,…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-07-25 Min-Gyu Kim , Dongyun Kang , Hajun Kim , Hae-Won Park

Deployment in hazardous environments requires robots to understand the risks associated with their actions and movements to prevent accidents. Despite its importance, these risks are not explicitly modeled by currently deployed locomotion…

Robotics · Computer Science 2024-05-06 Lukas Schneider , Jonas Frey , Takahiro Miki , Marco Hutter

Deep reinforcement learning has emerged as a popular and powerful way to develop locomotion controllers for quadruped robots. Common approaches have largely focused on learning actions directly in joint space, or learning to modify and…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-03-16 Guillaume Bellegarda , Yiyu Chen , Zhuochen Liu , Quan Nguyen

Safety is a critical feature of controller design for physical systems. When designing control policies, several approaches to guarantee this aspect of autonomy have been proposed, such as robust controllers or control barrier functions.…

Machine Learning · Computer Science 2021-02-26 Miguel Calvo-Fullana , Luiz F. O. Chamon , Santiago Paternain

Legged robots are promising candidates for exploring challenging areas on low-gravity bodies such as the Moon, Mars, or asteroids, thanks to their advanced mobility on unstructured terrain. However, as planetary robots' power and thermal…

Robotics · Computer Science 2025-11-17 Philip Arm , Oliver Fischer , Joseph Church , Adrian Fuhrer , Hendrik Kolvenbach , Marco Hutter

Legged robots have enormous potential in their range of capabilities, from navigating unstructured terrains to high-speed running. However, designing robust controllers for highly agile dynamic motions remains a substantial challenge for…

Robotics · Computer Science 2023-04-20 Laura Smith , J. Chase Kew , Tianyu Li , Linda Luu , Xue Bin Peng , Sehoon Ha , Jie Tan , Sergey Levine

Generating dynamic motions for legged robots remains a challenging problem. While reinforcement learning has achieved notable success in various legged locomotion tasks, producing highly dynamic behaviors often requires extensive reward…

Robotics · Computer Science 2026-01-01 Dongyun Kang , Min-Gyu Kim , Tae-Gyu Song , Hajun Kim , Sehoon Ha , Hae-Won Park

Developing robust walking controllers for bipedal robots is a challenging endeavor. Traditional model-based locomotion controllers require simplifying assumptions and careful modelling; any small errors can result in unstable control. To…

Robotics · Computer Science 2021-03-29 Zhongyu Li , Xuxin Cheng , Xue Bin Peng , Pieter Abbeel , Sergey Levine , Glen Berseth , Koushil Sreenath