Configuration Abstractions for Heterogeneous Legged Robot Fleets
Intelligent Mobility Lab, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China
Abstract:
Heterogeneous legged robot fleets combine platforms that differ in body length, payload, locomotion mode, and sensor mounting, and these differences normally force each embodiment onto its own local planner. This fragmentation duplicates code, complicates validation, and allows planning behavior to drift between robots that share a mission. This paper extends the configuration-driven planning idea of AgniNav from a single robot to the fleet level. The proposed abstraction has three parts: a compact, typed configuration schema that separates collision geometry, kinematic and payload limits, locomotion class, and sensor rig; a configuration registry service that validates descriptors, issues content-addressed handles, and caches derived planning quantities; and a planner interface that accepts configuration handles instead of compiled-in robot parameters. One bit-identical planning binary was evaluated on a simulated fleet of four morphologies, namely Go2-class and B2-class quadrupeds, a 1.4 m humanoid, and a four-wheel-drive rover, each with a distinct sensor rig, across 15 mixed-fleet scenarios with 5 seeds each. Compared with four separate per-embodiment code paths, the shared planner raised shared module reuse from 83.2 to 87.2 percent, lowered configuration load latency from 1.9 to 1.8 ms and 95th-percentile replanning latency from 38 to 34 ms, and raised plan quality parity from 81.2 to 96.4 percent, whereas a shared planner driven by ad hoc configuration flags reached 88.2 percent. Ablations attribute the largest share of the gain to the sensor-rig abstraction. The remaining failures involve differential-drive behavior on steep slopes and registry cold starts under concurrent load.
| Journal: | Transactions on Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Systems (TIRAS) |
|---|---|
| Volume / Issue: | Vol. 1, No. 1 (July 2026) |
| Article ID: | KAGG:2607.00008 |
| DOI: | 10.5803/kagg.2607.00008 |
| Received: | 2026-07-13 |
| Accepted: | 2026-07-24 |
| Published online: | 2026-07-27 |
| License: | CC BY 4.0 |
References (41)
- T. Zang, S. Cheng, H. Huang, S. Wang, and W. Zhang. AgniNav: Configuration-Driven Cross-Embodiment Local Planning for Robot Navigation. arXiv:2606.10903, 2026. arXiv:2606.10903
- H. Xi, M. Tan, X. Zhang, S. Cheng, S. Wang, Y. Gu, X. Shen, and W. Zhang. CeRLP: A Cross-embodiment Robot Local Planning Framework for Visual Navigation. arXiv:2603.19602, 2026. arXiv:2603.19602
- D. Shah, A. Sridhar, A. Bhorkar, N. Hirose, and S. Levine. GNM: A General Navigation Model to Drive Any Robot. arXiv:2210.03370, 2022. arXiv:2210.03370
- D. Shah, A. Sridhar, N. Dashora, K. Stachowicz, K. Black, N. Hirose, and S. Levine. ViNT: A Foundation Model for Visual Navigation. arXiv:2306.14846, 2023. arXiv:2306.14846
- A. Sridhar, D. Shah, C. Glossop, and S. Levine. NoMaD: Goal Masked Diffusion Policies for Navigation and Exploration. arXiv:2310.07896, 2023. arXiv:2310.07896
- A. Eftekhar et al. The One RING: a Robotic Indoor Navigation Generalist. arXiv:2412.14401, 2024. arXiv:2412.14401
- J. Zhang et al. Embodied Navigation Foundation Model. arXiv:2509.12129, 2025. arXiv:2509.12129
- J. Zhang, Y. Du, X. Guo, S. Sun, X. Liu, Y. Sun, G. Lu, W. Sui, and J. Li. EA-Nav: Learning Safe Visual Navigation Policies with Embodiment Awareness. arXiv:2607.19880, 2026. arXiv:2607.19880
- J. Yang, C. Glossop, A. Bhorkar, D. Shah, Q. Vuong, C. Finn, D. Sadigh, and S. Levine. Pushing the Limits of Cross-Embodiment Learning for Manipulation and Navigation. arXiv:2402.19432, 2024. arXiv:2402.19432
- R. Doshi, H. Walke, O. Mees, S. Dasari, and S. Levine. Scaling Cross-Embodied Learning: One Policy for Manipulation, Navigation, Locomotion and Aviation. arXiv:2408.11812, 2024. arXiv:2408.11812
- Open X-Embodiment Collaboration. Open X-Embodiment: Robotic Learning Datasets and RT-X Models. arXiv:2310.08864, 2023. arXiv:2310.08864
- Octo Model Team. Octo: An Open-Source Generalist Robot Policy. arXiv:2405.12213, 2024. arXiv:2405.12213
- G. Kahn, P. Abbeel, and S. Levine. BADGR: An Autonomous Self-Supervised Learning-Based Navigation System. arXiv:2002.05700, 2020. arXiv:2002.05700
- G. Williams, A. Aldrich, and E. Theodorou. Model Predictive Path Integral Control using Covariance Variable Importance Sampling. arXiv:1509.01149, 2015. arXiv:1509.01149
- X. Zhou, Z. Wang, H. Ye, C. Xu, and F. Gao. EGO-Planner: An ESDF-free Gradient-based Local Planner for Quadrotors. arXiv:2008.08835, 2020. arXiv:2008.08835
- S. Macenski, F. Martín, R. White, and J. Ginés Clavero. The Marathon 2: A Navigation System. arXiv:2003.00368, 2020. arXiv:2003.00368
- T. Miki, L. Wellhausen, R. Grandia, F. Jenelten, T. Homberger, and M. Hutter. Elevation Mapping for Locomotion and Navigation using GPU. arXiv:2204.12876, 2022. arXiv:2204.12876
- M. Frey, M. Mattamala, N. Chebrolu, C. Cadena, M. Fallon, and M. Hutter. Fast Traversability Estimation for Wild Visual Navigation. arXiv:2305.08510, 2023. arXiv:2305.08510
- D. D. Fan, K. Otsu, Y. Kubo, A. Dixit, J. Burdick, and A. Agha-Mohammadi. STEP: Stochastic Traversability Evaluation and Planning for Risk-Aware Off-road Navigation. arXiv:2103.02828, 2021. arXiv:2103.02828
- R. Grandia, F. Jenelten, S. Yang, F. Farshidian, and M. Hutter. Perceptive Locomotion through Nonlinear Model Predictive Control. arXiv:2208.08373, 2022. arXiv:2208.08373
- N. Rudin, D. Hoeller, M. Bjelonic, and M. Hutter. Advanced Skills by Learning Locomotion and Local Navigation End-to-End. arXiv:2209.12827, 2022. arXiv:2209.12827
- D. Hoeller, N. Rudin, D. Sako, and M. Hutter. ANYmal Parkour: Learning Agile Navigation for Quadrupedal Robots. arXiv:2306.14874, 2023. arXiv:2306.14874
- J. Hu, S. Yuan, G. C. R. Bethala, A. Tzes, and Y. Fang. Learning Adaptive Safety Margins for Visual Navigation. arXiv:2607.18200, 2026. arXiv:2607.18200
- J. Lee, J. Hwangbo, L. Wellhausen, V. Koltun, and M. Hutter. Learning Quadrupedal Locomotion over Challenging Terrain. arXiv:2010.11251, 2020. arXiv:2010.11251
- T. Miki, J. Lee, J. Hwangbo, L. Wellhausen, V. Koltun, and M. Hutter. Learning Robust Perceptive Locomotion for Quadrupedal Robots in the Wild. arXiv:2201.08117, 2022. arXiv:2201.08117
- A. Agarwal, A. Kumar, J. Malik, and D. Pathak. Legged Locomotion in Challenging Terrains using Egocentric Vision. arXiv:2211.07638, 2022. arXiv:2211.07638
- N. Rudin, D. Hoeller, P. Reist, and M. Hutter. Learning to Walk in Minutes Using Massively Parallel Deep Reinforcement Learning. arXiv:2109.11978, 2021. arXiv:2109.11978
- V. Makoviychuk et al. Isaac Gym: High Performance GPU-Based Physics Simulation for Robot Learning. arXiv:2108.10470, 2021. arXiv:2108.10470
- A. Kumar, Z. Fu, D. Pathak, and J. Malik. RMA: Rapid Motor Adaptation for Legged Robots. arXiv:2107.04034, 2021. arXiv:2107.04034
- G. Feng, H. Zhang, Z. Li, X. B. Peng, B. Basireddy, L. Yue, Z. Song, L. Yang, Y. Liu, K. Sreenath, and S. Levine. GenLoco: Generalized Locomotion Controllers for Quadrupedal Robots. arXiv:2209.05309, 2022. arXiv:2209.05309
- M. Shafiee, G. Bellegarda, and A. Ijspeert. ManyQuadrupeds: Learning a Single Locomotion Policy for Diverse Quadruped Robots. arXiv:2310.10486, 2023. arXiv:2310.10486
- N. Bohlinger, G. Czechmanowski, M. Krupka, P. Kicki, K. Walas, J. Peters, and D. Tateo. One Policy to Run Them All: an End-to-end Learning Approach to Multi-Embodiment Locomotion. arXiv:2409.06366, 2024. arXiv:2409.06366
- I. Radosavovic, T. Xiao, B. Zhang, T. Darrell, J. Malik, and K. Sreenath. Real-World Humanoid Locomotion with Reinforcement Learning. arXiv:2303.03381, 2023. arXiv:2303.03381
- S. Macenski, T. Foote, B. Gerkey, C. Lalancette, and W. Woodall. Robot Operating System 2: Design, Architecture, and Uses in the Wild. arXiv:2211.07752, 2022. arXiv:2211.07752
- D. Coleman, I. Sucan, S. Chitta, and N. Correll. Reducing the Barrier to Entry of Complex Robotic Software: a MoveIt! Case Study. arXiv:1404.3785, 2014. arXiv:1404.3785
- M. Colledanchise and P. Ögren. Behavior Trees in Robotics and AI: An Introduction. arXiv:1709.00084, 2017. arXiv:1709.00084
- M. Savva et al. Habitat: A Platform for Embodied AI Research. arXiv:1904.01201, 2019. arXiv:1904.01201
- F. Xia, A. Zamir, Z.-Y. He, A. Sax, J. Malik, and S. Savarese. Gibson Env: Real-World Perception for Embodied Agents. arXiv:1808.10654, 2018. arXiv:1808.10654
- A. Kadian et al. Sim2Real Predictivity: Does Evaluation in Simulation Predict Real-World Performance? arXiv:1912.06321, 2019. arXiv:1912.06321
- P. Anderson et al. On Evaluation of Embodied Navigation Agents. arXiv:1807.06757, 2018. arXiv:1807.06757
- N. Yokoyama, S. Ha, and D. Batra. Success Weighted by Completion Time: A Dynamics-Aware Evaluation Criteria for Embodied Navigation. arXiv:2103.08022, 2021. arXiv:2103.08022