Publication
An adaptive hierarchical control framework for quadrupedal robots in planetary exploration
Franek Stark; Rohit Kumar; Shubham Vyas; Hannah Isermann; Jonas Haack; Mihaela Popescu; Jakob Middelberg; Dennis Mronga; Frank Kirchner
In: Proceedings of 18th Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation. ESA/Estec Symposium on Advanced Space Technologies in Robotics and Automation (ASTRA-2025), October 7-9, Leiden, Netherlands, ESA, 2025.
Abstract
Planetary exploration missions require robots capable of navigating extreme and unknown environments. While wheeled rovers have dominated past missions, their mobility is limited to traversable surfaces. Legged robots, especially quadrupeds, can overcome these limitations by handling uneven, obstacle-rich, and deformable terrains. However, deploying such robots in unknown conditions is challenging due to the need for environment-specific control, which is infeasible when terrain and robot parameters are uncertain. This work presents a modular control framework that combines model-based dynamic control with online model adaptation and adaptive footstep planning to address uncertainties in both robot and terrain properties. The framework includes state estimation for quadrupeds with and without contact sensing, supports runtime reconfiguration, and is integrated into ROS 2 with opensource availability. Its performance was validated on two quadruped platforms, multiple hardware architectures, and in a volcano field test, where the robot walked over 700 m.
