Towards Proprioceptive Terrain Mapping with Quadruped Robots for Exploration in Planetary Permanently Shadowed Regions

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Sanchez-Delgado, Alberto, Soares, João Carlos Virgolino, Barasuol, Victor, Semini, Claudio
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Sanchez-Delgado, Alberto
Soares, João Carlos Virgolino
Barasuol, Victor
Semini, Claudio
author_facet Sanchez-Delgado, Alberto
Soares, João Carlos Virgolino
Barasuol, Victor
Semini, Claudio
contents Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) near the lunar poles are of interest for future exploration due to their potential to contain water ice and preserve geological records. Their complex, uneven terrain favors the use of legged robots, which can traverse challenging surfaces while collecting in-situ data, and have proven effective in Earth analogs, including dark caves, when equipped with onboard lighting. While exteroceptive sensors like cameras and lidars can capture terrain geometry and even semantic information, they cannot quantify its physical interaction with the robot, a capability provided by proprioceptive sensing. We propose a terrain mapping framework for quadruped robots, which estimates elevation, foot slippage, energy cost, and stability margins from internal sensing during locomotion. These metrics are incrementally integrated into a multi-layer 2.5D gridmap that reflects terrain interaction from the robot's perspective. The system is evaluated in a simulator that mimics a lunar environment, using the 21 kg quadruped robot Aliengo, showing consistent mapping performance under lunar gravity and terrain conditions.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_18986
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Towards Proprioceptive Terrain Mapping with Quadruped Robots for Exploration in Planetary Permanently Shadowed Regions
Sanchez-Delgado, Alberto
Soares, João Carlos Virgolino
Barasuol, Victor
Semini, Claudio
Robotics
Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSRs) near the lunar poles are of interest for future exploration due to their potential to contain water ice and preserve geological records. Their complex, uneven terrain favors the use of legged robots, which can traverse challenging surfaces while collecting in-situ data, and have proven effective in Earth analogs, including dark caves, when equipped with onboard lighting. While exteroceptive sensors like cameras and lidars can capture terrain geometry and even semantic information, they cannot quantify its physical interaction with the robot, a capability provided by proprioceptive sensing. We propose a terrain mapping framework for quadruped robots, which estimates elevation, foot slippage, energy cost, and stability margins from internal sensing during locomotion. These metrics are incrementally integrated into a multi-layer 2.5D gridmap that reflects terrain interaction from the robot's perspective. The system is evaluated in a simulator that mimics a lunar environment, using the 21 kg quadruped robot Aliengo, showing consistent mapping performance under lunar gravity and terrain conditions.
title Towards Proprioceptive Terrain Mapping with Quadruped Robots for Exploration in Planetary Permanently Shadowed Regions
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.18986