Autonomous Legged Mobile Manipulation for Lunar Surface Operations via Constrained Reinforcement Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Belmonte-Baeza, Alvaro, Cazorla, Miguel, García, Gabriel J., Pérez-Del-Pulgar, Carlos J., Pomares, Jorge
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Belmonte-Baeza, Alvaro
Cazorla, Miguel
García, Gabriel J.
Pérez-Del-Pulgar, Carlos J.
Pomares, Jorge
author_facet Belmonte-Baeza, Alvaro
Cazorla, Miguel
García, Gabriel J.
Pérez-Del-Pulgar, Carlos J.
Pomares, Jorge
contents Robotics plays a pivotal role in planetary science and exploration, where autonomous and reliable systems are crucial due to the risks and challenges inherent to space environments. The establishment of permanent lunar bases demands robotic platforms capable of navigating and manipulating in the harsh lunar terrain. While wheeled rovers have been the mainstay for planetary exploration, their limitations in unstructured and steep terrains motivate the adoption of legged robots, which offer superior mobility and adaptability. This paper introduces a constrained reinforcement learning framework designed for autonomous quadrupedal mobile manipulators operating in lunar environments. The proposed framework integrates whole-body locomotion and manipulation capabilities while explicitly addressing critical safety constraints, including collision avoidance, dynamic stability, and power efficiency, in order to ensure robust performance under lunar-specific conditions, such as reduced gravity and irregular terrain. Experimental results demonstrate the framework's effectiveness in achieving precise 6D task-space end-effector pose tracking, achieving an average positional accuracy of 4 cm and orientation accuracy of 8.1 degrees. The system consistently respects both soft and hard constraints, exhibiting adaptive behaviors optimized for lunar gravity conditions. This work effectively bridges adaptive learning with essential mission-critical safety requirements, paving the way for advanced autonomous robotic explorers for future lunar missions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_12684
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Autonomous Legged Mobile Manipulation for Lunar Surface Operations via Constrained Reinforcement Learning
Belmonte-Baeza, Alvaro
Cazorla, Miguel
García, Gabriel J.
Pérez-Del-Pulgar, Carlos J.
Pomares, Jorge
Robotics
Systems and Control
Robotics plays a pivotal role in planetary science and exploration, where autonomous and reliable systems are crucial due to the risks and challenges inherent to space environments. The establishment of permanent lunar bases demands robotic platforms capable of navigating and manipulating in the harsh lunar terrain. While wheeled rovers have been the mainstay for planetary exploration, their limitations in unstructured and steep terrains motivate the adoption of legged robots, which offer superior mobility and adaptability. This paper introduces a constrained reinforcement learning framework designed for autonomous quadrupedal mobile manipulators operating in lunar environments. The proposed framework integrates whole-body locomotion and manipulation capabilities while explicitly addressing critical safety constraints, including collision avoidance, dynamic stability, and power efficiency, in order to ensure robust performance under lunar-specific conditions, such as reduced gravity and irregular terrain. Experimental results demonstrate the framework's effectiveness in achieving precise 6D task-space end-effector pose tracking, achieving an average positional accuracy of 4 cm and orientation accuracy of 8.1 degrees. The system consistently respects both soft and hard constraints, exhibiting adaptive behaviors optimized for lunar gravity conditions. This work effectively bridges adaptive learning with essential mission-critical safety requirements, paving the way for advanced autonomous robotic explorers for future lunar missions.
title Autonomous Legged Mobile Manipulation for Lunar Surface Operations via Constrained Reinforcement Learning
topic Robotics
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12684