# Learning a Contact-Adaptive Controller for Robust, Efficient Legged Locomotion

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.10019 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2009.10019/

## Key facts

- Cited by 24 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 21 Sep 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 24 of 24)

- [Robot Parkour Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.05665/) (2023)
- [Learning Vision-Guided Quadrupedal Locomotion End-to-End with Cross-Modal Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03996/) (2021)
- [Minimizing Energy Consumption Leads to the Emergence of Gaits in Legged Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.01674/) (2021)
- [Fast and Efficient Locomotion via Learned Gait Transitions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.04644/) (2021)
- [Factory: Fast Contact for Robotic Assembly](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.03532/) (2022)
- [Learning to Jump from Pixels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.15344/) (2021)
- [Imitate and Repurpose: Learning Reusable Robot Movement Skills From Human and Animal Behaviors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.17138/) (2022)
- [Learning Torque Control for Quadrupedal Locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.05194/) (2022)
- [GLiDE: Generalizable Quadrupedal Locomotion in Diverse Environments with a Centroidal Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09771/) (2021)
- [Vision-Guided Quadrupedal Locomotion in the Wild with Multi-Modal Delay Randomization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.14549/) (2021)
- [Value Iteration in Continuous Actions, States and Time](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.04682/) (2021)
- [Learning Multi-Modal Whole-Body Control for Real-World Humanoid Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.07295/) (2024)
- [Sim-to-Real Transfer for Quadrupedal Locomotion via Terrain Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.07740/) (2022)
- [Learning Multi-Agent Loco-Manipulation for Long-Horizon Quadrupedal Pushing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.07104/) (2024)
- [Physics-Regulated Deep Reinforcement Learning: Invariant Embeddings](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.16614/) (2023)
- [Vegetable Peeling: A Case Study in Constrained Dexterous Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.07884/) (2024)
- [Learning to Walk by Steering: Perceptive Quadrupedal Locomotion in Dynamic Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.09233/) (2022)
- [Continuous Versatile Jumping Using Learned Action Residuals](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.08663/) (2023)
- [Learning Quadruped Locomotion Policies using Logical Rules](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.10969/) (2021)
- [Adaptive Energy Regularization for Autonomous Gait Transition and Energy-Efficient Quadruped Locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.20001/) (2024)
- [A Transferable Legged Mobile Manipulation Framework Based on Disturbance Predictive Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.03391/) (2022)
- [An Efficient Model-Based Approach on Learning Agile Motor Skills without Reinforcement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01962/) (2024)
- [Learning Generic and Dynamic Locomotion of Humanoids Across Discrete Terrains](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.17227/) (2024)
- [Adaptive MPC-based quadrupedal robot control under periodic disturbances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.12361/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We present a hierarchical framework that combines model-based control and reinforcement learning (RL) to synthesize robust controllers for a quadruped (the Unitree Laikago). The system consists of a high-level controller that learns to choose from a set of primitives in response to changes in the environment and a low-level controller that utilizes an established control method to robustly execute the primitives. Our framework learns a controller that can adapt to challenging environmental changes on the fly, including novel scenarios not seen during training. The learned controller is up to 85~percent more energy efficient and is more robust compared to baseline methods. We also deploy the controller on a physical robot without any randomization or adaptation scheme.