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Cited by 124Robotic Locomotion and ControlPlanetary Science and ExplorationRobotics and Sensor-Based Localization

Scientific exploration of challenging planetary analog environments with a team of legged robots

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Arm, Philip, Waibel, Gabriel, Preisig, Jan, Tuna, Turcan, Zhou, Ruyi, Bickel, Valentin, Ligeza, Gabriela, Miki, Takahiro +3 more·2023·Science Robotics
DOI 10.1126/scirobotics.ade9548
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Abstract

The interest in exploring planetary bodies for scientific investigation and in situ resource utilization is ever-rising. Yet, many sites of interest are inaccessible to state-of-the-art planetary exploration robots because of the robots’ inability to traverse steep slopes, unstructured terrain, and loose soil. In addition, current single-robot approaches only allow a limited exploration speed and a single set of skills. Here, we present a team of legged robots with complementary skills for exploration missions in challenging planetary analog environments. We equipped the robots with an efficient locomotion controller, a mapping pipeline for online and postmission visualization, instance segmentation to highlight scientific targets, and scientific instruments for remote and in situ investigation. Furthermore, we integrated a robotic arm on one of the robots to enable high-precision measurements. Legged robots can swiftly navigate representative terrains, such as granular slopes beyond 25°, loose soil, and unstructured terrain, highlighting their advantages compared with wheeled rover systems. We successfully verified the approach in analog deployments at the Beyond Gravity ExoMars rover test bed, in a quarry in Switzerland, and at the Space Resources Challenge in Luxembourg. Our results show that a team of legged robots with advanced locomotion, perception, and measurement skills, as well as task-level autonomy, can conduct successful, effective missions in a short time. Our approach enables the scientific exploration of planetary target sites that are currently out of human and robotic reach.

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  • The vast majority of existing datasets are typically derived from planetary-analog terrains on Earth or simulated environments with minimal planetary terrain fidelity.

    “The vast majority of existing datasets are typically derived from planetary-analog terrains on Earth (Vayugundla, 2022; Arm et al., 2023) or simulated environments with minimal planetary terrain fidelity such as synthetically generated (Richard et al., 2024).”

    From Planetary Terrain Datasets and Benchmarks for Rover Path Planning (2025) · cites this paper as Arm et al., 2023

    The Introduction (p. 2) describes deployments at three planetary-analog sites, and Mapping and Target Identification (p. 8) reports maps made during the quarry and Luxembourg missions. This supports Arm et al. as an example of data collected on Earth-based analog terrain, but the paper does not establish that the vast majority of existing datasets come from such terrain. The simulated-environment clause is cited to a different source. (LLM, conf=0.84)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • There is a lack of space mission-based planetary datasets, standardized benchmarks, and evaluation protocols.

    “As a result, there is a lack of space mission-based planetary datasets, standardized benchmarks, and evaluation protocols.”

    From Planetary Terrain Datasets and Benchmarks for Rover Path Planning (2025) · cites this paper as Arm et al., 2023

    The Discussion (p. 10) describes scientific data collected in planetary analog missions and challenges in scaling the robots to space missions. It does not assess whether space mission-based planetary datasets, standardized benchmarks, or evaluation protocols are lacking; searches for those terms found no supporting passage. (LLM, conf=0.75)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

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Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Arm, P., Waibel, G., Preisig, J., Tuna, T., Zhou, R., Bickel, V., Ligeza, G., Miki, T., Kehl, F., Kolvenbach, H., & Hutter, M.
Affiliations
  • ETH Zurich (CH)
  • Harbin Institute of Technology (CN)
  • University of Bern (CH)
  • University of Basel (CH)
  • University of Zurich (CH)
Corresponding author
  • Arm, Philip
  • Waibel, Gabriel
ORCID
Venue
Science Robotics
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Published
2023-07-12
Volume
8
Issue
80
Pages
eade9548-eade9548
ISSN
2470-9476 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1126/scirobotics.ade9548
OpenAlex
W4384025110
Cited by
124
References
2
Citations by year
2026: 40 · 2025: 45 · 2024: 39
FWCI
9.81
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Science Robotics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
  • Bern Open Repository and Information System (University of Bern) (submittedVersion)
  • Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
  • arXiv (Cornell University)
  • ETH Zürich Research Collection
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Biomedical Engineering › Robotic Locomotion and Control
  • Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Astronomy and Astrophysics › Planetary Science and Exploration
  • Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization
Keywords
legged robots, planetary exploration, multi-robot teams, granular slopes, loose soil, unstructured terrain, locomotion control, instance segmentation, robot manipulators, in-situ resource utilization

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