Perceptive Locomotion in Rough Terrain Online Foothold Optimization

Paper Abstract: Compared to wheeled vehicles, legged systems have a vast potential to traverse challenging terrain. To exploit the full potential, it is crucial to tightly integrate terrain perception for foothold planning. We present a hierarchical locomotion planner together with a foothold optimizer that finds locally optimal footholds within an elevation map. The map is generated in realtime from onboard depth sensors. We further propose a terrainaware contact schedule to deal with actuator velocity