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 offthe-shelf deep reinforcement learning algorithm, we trained a neural network to control a jumping quadruped robot while solely using its limbs for attitude control. We present tasks of increasing complexity leading to a combination of threedimensional (re-)orientation and landing locomotion behaviors of a quadruped robot traversing simulated low-gravity celestial bodies. We show that our approach easily generalizes across these tasks and successfully trains policies for each case. Using sim-toreal transfer, we deploy trained policies in the real world on the SpaceBok robot placed on an experimental testbed designed for two-dimensional micro-gravity experiments. The experimental results demonstrate that repetitive, controlled jumping and landing with natural agility is possible.Index Terms-Legged Robots; Deep Learning in Robotics and Automation; Space Robotics and Automation * We choose to use the gravity of Ceres, −0.27m/s 2 ≈ 0.03g [22]. Ceres is the smallest dwarf planet of the solar system. The low gravity environment makes it an interesting target for jumping locomotion.† https://youtu.be/KQhlZa42fe4
We propose a learning-based method to reconstruct the local terrain for locomotion with a mobile robot traversing urban environments. Using a stream of depth measurements from the onboard cameras and the robot's trajectory, the algorithm estimates the topography in the robot's vicinity. The raw measurements from these cameras are noisy and only provide partial and occluded observations that in many cases do not show the terrain the robot stands on. Therefore, we propose a 3D reconstruction model that faithfully reconstructs the scene, despite the noisy measurements and large amounts of missing data coming from the blind spots of the camera arrangement. The model consists of a 4D fully convolutional network on point clouds that learns the geometric priors to complete the scene from the context and an auto-regressive feedback to leverage spatio-temporal consistency and use evidence from the past. The network can be solely trained with synthetic data, and due to extensive augmentation, it is robust in the real world, as shown in the validation on a quadrupedal robot, ANYmal, traversing challenging settings. We run the pipeline on the robot's onboard low-power computer using an efficient sparse tensor implementation and show that the proposed method outperforms classical map representations.
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