Legged Robotics

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Overview

Legged robotics investigates how quadrupeds, humanoids, and other walking or hopping machines move safely and efficiently while interacting with uneven, cluttered, or changing terrain. Common approaches include model-predictive and whole-body control, reinforcement learning, foothold and terrain planning, and sensor fusion for estimating motion and foot contact. Researchers test these methods in simulation and on physical robots, with tasks ranging from rough-terrain traversal and jumping to manipulation and navigation. A central challenge is making robots robust to uncertain contact, sensor failures, and unfamiliar environments while balancing agility, energy use, safety, and reliable sim-to-real transfer.

Latest papers

CardsList

126 papers22 papers in the last four weeks, up 22% on the four weeks before. 0.1% of all new papers.

  1. Learning-Based Fault Detection for Legged Robots in Remote Dynamic Environments

    Apr 3, 2026Abriana Stewart-Height, Seema Jahagirdar, Nikolai MatniRobot Failure DetectionLegged Robotics

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA 02139, USA · Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

  2. CReF: Cross-modal and Recurrent Fusion for Depth-conditioned Humanoid Locomotion

    Mar 31, 2026Yuan Hao, Ruiqi Yu, Shixin Luo +3Humanoid Robot LocomotionRobot Locomotion

    The authors are with Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China. · Guoteng Zhang is with the School of Control Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China.

  3. Interacting Multiple Model Proprioceptive Odometry for Legged Robots

    Mar 31, 2026Wanlei Li, Zichang Chen, Shilei Li +2Robot State EstimationLegged Robotics

    The authors are with the Shenzhen Key Lab for Advanced Motion Control Technology and Modern Automation Equipment and the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Intelligent Morphing Mechanisms and Adaptive Robots, School of Intelligence Science and Engineering, College of Artificial Intelligence, Harbin Institute of Technology Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518055, China.

  4. Stable Walking for Bipedal Locomotion under Foot-Slip via Virtual Nonholonomic Constraints

    Mar 30, 2026Leonardo Colombo, Álvaro Rodríguez Abella, Alexandre Anahory Simoes +1Legged RoboticsHumanoid Robot Locomotion

    Centre for Automation and Robotics (CSIC-UPM), Ctra. M300 Campo Real, Km 0,200, Arganda del Rey - 28500 Madrid, Spain. · the Department of Applied Mathematics, Comillas Pontifical University, Madrid, 28015 - Madrid, Spain. · School of Science and Technology, IE University, Madrid, Spain. +1

  5. Partial Motion Imitation for Learning Cart Pushing with Legged Manipulators

    Mar 27, 2026Mili Das, Morgan Byrd, Donghoon Baek +1Adversarial Motion PriorRobotic Loco-Manipulation

    Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 30308, USA

  6. QuadFM: Foundational Text-Driven Quadruped Motion Dataset for Generation and Control

    Mar 25, 2026Li Gao, Fuzhi Yang, Jianhui Chen +4Robot Motion GenerationLegged Robotics

    AMAP, Alibaba Group

  7. Allometric Scaling Laws for Bipedal Robots

    Mar 23, 2026Naomi Oke, Aja M. Carter, Ben Gu +4Legged RoboticsHumanoid Robot Locomotion

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA · Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15213, USA

  8. MEVIUS2: Practical Open-Source Quadruped Robot with Sheet Metal Welding and Multimodal Perception

    Mar 23, 2026Kento Kawaharazuka, Keita Yoneda, Shintaro Inoue +3RoboticsLegged Robotics

    The authors are with the Department of Mechano-Informatics, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8656, Japan.

  9. Legged Autonomous Surface Science In Analogue Environments (LASSIE): Making Every Robotic Step Count in Planetary Exploration

    Mar 20, 2026Cristina G. Wilson, Marion Nachon, Shipeng Liu +20Planetary Rover RoboticsRobotic Data Collection

    Collaborative Robotics and Intelligent Systems Institute, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97331, USA · Department of Geology and Geophysics, Texas A&M University, College Station, 77843, USA · Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 90089, USA +7

  10. Proprioceptive-only State Estimation for Legged Robots with Set-Coverage Measurements of Learned Dynamics

    Mar 18, 2026Abhijeet M. Kulkarni, Ioannis Poulakakis, Guoquan HuangRobot State EstimationLegged Robotics

    Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, USA · Robotics Institute, Athena Research Center, Marousi, Greece; School of Mechanical Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Greece; HERON–Center of Excellence in Robotics, Athens, Greece

  11. REAL: Robust Extreme Agility via Spatio-Temporal Policy Learning and Physics-Guided Filtering

    Mar 18, 2026Jialong Liu, Dehan Shen, Yanbo Wen +2Robot Policy LearningRobot Locomotion

    PEAK-Lab, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, 511453, China.

  12. Beyond Cybathlon: On-demand Quadrupedal Assistance for People with Limited Mobility

    Mar 17, 2026Carmen Scheidemann, Andrei Cramariuc, Changan Chen +2Assistive RoboticsHealthcare Robotics

    ETH Zurich, Robotic Systems Lab, Zurich, Switzerland.

  13. MiNI-Q: A Miniature, Wire-Free Quadruped with Unbounded, Independently Actuated Leg Joints

    Mar 12, 2026Daniel Koh, Suraj Shah, Yufeng Wu +1Legged RoboticsRobotics

    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.

  14. RL-Augmented MPC for Non-Gaited Legged and Hybrid Locomotion

    Mar 11, 2026Andrea Patrizi, Carlo Rizzardo, Arturo Laurenzi +3Robot LocomotionLegged Robotics

    All authors are with the Humanoids and Human-Centred Mechatronics (HHCM) lab, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via San Quirico 19d, 16163 Genova · Andrea Patrizi is also with the Department of Informatics, Bioengineering, Robotics and Systems Engineering, University of Genova, Via All’Opera Pia 13, 16145 Genova.

  15. Dynamic Modeling and Attitude Control of a Reaction-Wheel-Based Low-Gravity Bipedal Hopper

    Mar 11, 2026Shriram Hari, M Venkata Sai Nikhil, R Prasanth KumarRobot LocomotionLegged Robotics

    Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, Sangareddy, India

  16. Walking on Rough Terrain with Any Number of Legs

    Mar 10, 2026Zhuoyang Chen, Xinyuan Wang, Shai RevzenLegged RoboticsRobot Locomotion

    The authors are with the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.

  17. A Robust Antenna Provides Tactile Feedback in a Multi-legged Robot

    Mar 8, 2026Zhaochen J. Xu, Juntao He, Delfin Aydan +5Legged RoboticsRobot Navigation

    All authors are with the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.

  18. Model-Based and Neural-Aided Approaches for Dog Dead Reckoning

    Mar 8, 2026Gal Versano, Itai Savin, Itzik KleinRobot LocalizationInertial Odometry

    Hatter Department of Marine Technologies, University of Haifa, Israel

  19. Unifying Sidewinding and Rolling: A Wave-Based Framework for Self-Righting in Elongated Limbless and Multi-Legged Robots

    Mar 8, 2026Hangjun Liu, Jiarui Geng, Jinxuan Ding +7Legged RoboticsRobot Locomotion

  20. Underactuated multimodal jumping robot for extraterrestrial exploration

    Mar 6, 2026Neil R. Wagner, Justin K. YimRobot LocomotionLegged Robotics

    Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  21. OpenHEART: Opening Heterogeneous Articulated Objects with a Legged Manipulator

    Mar 6, 2026Seonghyeon Lim, Hyeonwoo Lee, Seunghyun Lee +2Articulated Object ManipulationGeneralization in Robotic Manipulation

    School of Electrical Engineering, KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology), Daejeon, 34141, Republic of Korea. · KRAFTON, Seoul, 06142, Republic of Korea.

  22. Gait Generation Balancing Joint Load and Mobility for Legged Modular Robots with Easily Detachable Joints

    Mar 5, 2026Kennosuke Chihara, Takuya Kiyokawa, Kensuke HaradaLegged RoboticsRobot Motion Generation

    Department of Systems Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, The University of Osaka, 1-3 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan. · Industrial Cyber-physical Systems Research Center, The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), 2-3-26 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

  23. Look Forward to Walk Backward: Efficient Terrain Memory for Backward Locomotion with Forward Vision

    Mar 3, 2026Shixin Luo, Songbo Li, Yuan Hao +4Robot LocomotionLegged Robotics

    The authors are with Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control, Zhejiang University, 310027, China. · The author is with College of Artificial Intelligence, Nankai University, 300350, China. · The author is with Hangzhou Public Library, 310016, China.

  24. Watch Your Step: Learning Semantically-Guided Locomotion in Cluttered Environment

    Mar 3, 2026Denan Liang, Yuan Zhu, Ruimeng Liu +3Legged RoboticsRL for Legged Locomotion

  25. KCFRC: Kinematic Collision-Aware Foothold Reachability Criteria for Legged Locomotion

    Feb 24, 2026Lei Ye, Haibo Gao, Huaiguang Yang +6Legged RoboticsReachability Analysis

    State Key Laboratory of Robotics and Systems, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.

  26. Soft Surfaced Vision-Based Tactile Sensing for Bipedal Robot Applications

    Feb 20, 2026Jaeeun Kim, Junhee Lim, Yu SheRobotic Tactile SensingVision-Based Tactile Sensing

    Department of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA · Department of Computer Science, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN 47906, USA

  27. GrandTour: A Legged Robotics Dataset in the Wild for Multi-Modal Perception and State Estimation

    Feb 20, 2026Turcan Tuna, Jonas Frey, Frank Fu +5Legged RoboticsSimultaneous Localization and Mapping

    Robotic Systems Lab, ETH Zurich, Zurich 8092, Switzerland · 1ETH Zurich, Switzerland · 2Stanford University, USA +1

  28. Contact-Anchored Proprioceptive Odometry for Legged and Wheel-Legged Robots

    Feb 19, 2026Minxing Sun, Yao MaoLegged RoboticsRobot State Estimation

    Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China · Institute for Infocomm Research (I2R), Agency for Science, Technology and Research, Singapore. · Shenzhen Astralldynamics Technology.

  29. PUMA: Perception-driven Unified Foothold Prior for Mobility Augmented Quadruped Parkour

    Jan 22, 2026Liang Wang, Kanzhong Yao, Yang Liu +4Legged RoboticsTerrain-Aware Robot Locomotion

    Institute of Cyber-Systems and Control, Zhejiang University, 310027, China · Institute of Artificial Intelligence (TeleAI), China Telecom.

  30. GaRLILEO: Gravity-aligned Radar-Leg-Inertial Enhanced Odometry

    Nov 17, 2025Chiyun Noh, Sangwoo Jung, Hanjun Kim +3Legged RoboticsInertial Odometry

    Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, SNU, Seoul, S. Korea · Robotics and AI Institute, Cambridge, USA