Tightly-Coupled LiDAR-IMU-Leg Odometry with Online Learned Leg Kinematics Incorporating Foot Tactile Information

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Okawara, Taku, Koide, Kenji, Takanose, Aoki, Oishi, Shuji, Yokozuka, Masashi, Uno, Kentaro, Yoshida, Kazuya
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Okawara, Taku
Koide, Kenji
Takanose, Aoki
Oishi, Shuji
Yokozuka, Masashi
Uno, Kentaro
Yoshida, Kazuya
author_facet Okawara, Taku
Koide, Kenji
Takanose, Aoki
Oishi, Shuji
Yokozuka, Masashi
Uno, Kentaro
Yoshida, Kazuya
contents In this letter, we present tightly coupled LiDAR-IMU-leg odometry, which is robust to challenging conditions such as featureless environments and deformable terrains. We developed an online learning-based leg kinematics model named the neural leg kinematics model, which incorporates tactile information (foot reaction force) to implicitly express the nonlinear dynamics between robot feet and the ground. Online training of this model enhances its adaptability to weight load changes of a robot (e.g., assuming delivery or transportation tasks) and terrain conditions. According to the \textit{neural adaptive leg odometry factor} and online uncertainty estimation of the leg kinematics model-based motion predictions, we jointly solve online training of this kinematics model and odometry estimation on a unified factor graph to retain the consistency of both. The proposed method was verified through real experiments using a quadruped robot in two challenging situations: 1) a sandy beach, representing an extremely featureless area with a deformable terrain, and 2) a campus, including multiple featureless areas and terrain types of asphalt, gravel (deformable terrain), and grass. Experimental results showed that our odometry estimation incorporating the \textit{neural leg kinematics model} outperforms state-of-the-art works. Our project page is available for further details: https://takuokawara.github.io/RAL2025_project_page/
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_09548
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Tightly-Coupled LiDAR-IMU-Leg Odometry with Online Learned Leg Kinematics Incorporating Foot Tactile Information
Okawara, Taku
Koide, Kenji
Takanose, Aoki
Oishi, Shuji
Yokozuka, Masashi
Uno, Kentaro
Yoshida, Kazuya
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
In this letter, we present tightly coupled LiDAR-IMU-leg odometry, which is robust to challenging conditions such as featureless environments and deformable terrains. We developed an online learning-based leg kinematics model named the neural leg kinematics model, which incorporates tactile information (foot reaction force) to implicitly express the nonlinear dynamics between robot feet and the ground. Online training of this model enhances its adaptability to weight load changes of a robot (e.g., assuming delivery or transportation tasks) and terrain conditions. According to the \textit{neural adaptive leg odometry factor} and online uncertainty estimation of the leg kinematics model-based motion predictions, we jointly solve online training of this kinematics model and odometry estimation on a unified factor graph to retain the consistency of both. The proposed method was verified through real experiments using a quadruped robot in two challenging situations: 1) a sandy beach, representing an extremely featureless area with a deformable terrain, and 2) a campus, including multiple featureless areas and terrain types of asphalt, gravel (deformable terrain), and grass. Experimental results showed that our odometry estimation incorporating the \textit{neural leg kinematics model} outperforms state-of-the-art works. Our project page is available for further details: https://takuokawara.github.io/RAL2025_project_page/
title Tightly-Coupled LiDAR-IMU-Leg Odometry with Online Learned Leg Kinematics Incorporating Foot Tactile Information
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09548