mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

STEP: Stochastic Traversability Evaluation and Planning for Risk-Aware Off-road Navigation

arXiv 2103.02828 ↗First posted 4 Mar 2021cs.RO cs.AI cs.SYcited by 27

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Abstract (arXiv)

Although ground robotic autonomy has gained widespread usage in structured and controlled environments, autonomy in unknown and off-road terrain remains a difficult problem. Extreme, off-road, and unstructured environments such as undeveloped wilderness, caves, and rubble pose unique and challenging problems for autonomous navigation. To tackle these problems we propose an approach for assessing traversability and planning a safe, feasible, and fast trajectory in real-time. Our approach, which we name STEP (Stochastic Traversability Evaluation and Planning), relies on: 1) rapid uncertainty-aware mapping and traversability evaluation, 2) tail risk assessment using the Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR), and 3) efficient risk and constraint-aware kinodynamic motion planning using sequential quadratic programming-based (SQP) model predictive control (MPC). We analyze our method in simulation and validate its efficacy on wheeled and legged robotic platforms exploring extreme terrains including an abandoned subway and an underground lava tube.

Key facts. Cited by 27 papers in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Builds on 17 of its 46 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 4 Mar 2021.

Builds on

17 of 46 references.

References · 17

  1. 2017Distributional Reinforcement Learning with Quantile Regressioncited by 464
  2. 2015Risk-Sensitive and Robust Decision-Making: a CVaR Optimization Approachcited by 162
  3. 2017OSQP: An Operator Splitting Solver for Quadratic Programscited by 156
  4. 2017How Should a Robot Assess Risk? Towards an Axiomatic Theory of Risk in Roboticscited by 57
  5. 2020LAMP: Large-Scale Autonomous Mapping and Positioning for Exploration of Perceptually-Degraded Subterranean Environmentscited by 19
  6. 2020Autonomous Spot: Long-Range Autonomous Exploration of Extreme Environments with Legged Locomotioncited by 18
  7. 2020LOCUS: A Multi-Sensor Lidar-Centric Solution for High-Precision Odometry and 3D Mapping in Real-Timecited by 16
  8. 2020Constrained Risk-Averse Markov Decision Processescited by 15
  9. 2020Deep Learning Tubes for Tube MPCcited by 14
  10. 2021PLGRIM: Hierarchical Value Learning for Large-scale Exploration in Unknown Environmentscited by 12
  11. 2019Risk-Averse Planning Under Uncertaintycited by 11
  12. 2020Confidence-rich grid mappingcited by 7
5 more
  1. 2020Risk-Sensitive Motion Planning using Entropic Value-at-Riskcited by 7
  2. 2017A Framework for Time-Consistent, Risk-Sensitive Model Predictive Control: Theory and Algorithmscited by 6
  3. 2018Fast Approximate Clearance Evaluation for Rovers with Articulated Suspension Systemscited by 6
  4. 2018Path Planning and Navigation Inside Off-World Lava Tubes and Cavescited by 4
  5. 2021Autonomous Off-road Navigation over Extreme Terrains with Perceptually-challenging Conditionscited by 4

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Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2021: 5; 2022: 6; 2023: 3; 2024: 4; 2025: 6; 2026: 3.

27 papers.

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  1. 2023Fast Traversability Estimation for Wild Visual Navigationcited by 41
  2. 2021NeBula: Quest for Robotic Autonomy in Challenging Environments; TEAM CoSTAR at the DARPA Subterranean Challengecited by 32
  3. 2024RoadRunner -- Learning Traversability Estimation for Autonomous Off-road Drivingcited by 23
  4. 2022Self-Supervised Traversability Prediction by Learning to Reconstruct Safe Terraincited by 21
  5. 2022ScaTE: A Scalable Framework for Self-Supervised Traversability Estimation in Unstructured Environmentscited by 21
  6. 2023EVORA: Deep Evidential Traversability Learning for Risk-Aware Off-Road Autonomycited by 18
  7. 2022Risk-Aware Off-Road Navigation via a Learned Speed Distribution Mapcited by 17
  8. 2023Learning Risk-Aware Costmaps via Inverse Reinforcement Learning for Off-Road Navigationcited by 15
  9. 2024Wild Visual Navigation: Fast Traversability Learning via Pre-Trained Models and Online Self-Supervisioncited by 15
  10. 2021Learning Risk-aware Costmaps for Traversability in Challenging Environmentscited by 12
  11. 2022Sim-to-Real via Sim-to-Seg: End-to-end Off-road Autonomous Driving Without Real Datacited by 9
  12. 2021Risk-Averse Stochastic Shortest Path Planningcited by 8
15 more
  1. 2022UAVs Beneath the Surface: Cooperative Autonomy for Subterranean Search and Rescue in DARPA SubTcited by 7
  2. 2024PIETRA: Physics-Informed Evidential Learning for Traversing Out-of-Distribution Terraincited by 7
  3. 2025PhysGS: Bayesian-Inferred Gaussian Splatting for Physical Property Estimationcited by 6
  4. 2022Learning Semantics-Aware Locomotion Skills from Human Demonstrationcited by 5
  5. 2025Watch Your STEPP: Semantic Traversability Estimation using Pose Projected Featurescited by 4
  6. 2025LoGoPlanner: Localization Grounded Navigation Policy with Metric-aware Visual Geometrycited by 4
  7. 2026WildOS: Open-Vocabulary Object Search in the Wildcited by 3
  8. 2021Risk-Averse Decision Making Under Uncertaintycited by 2
  9. 2024Uncertainty-aware Semantic Mapping in Off-road Environments with Dempster-Shafer Theory of Evidencecited by 2
  10. 2025ZeST: an VLM-based Zero-Shot Traversability Navigation for Unknown Environmentscited by 2
  11. 2021Fast nonlinear risk assessment for autonomous vehicles using learned conditional probabilistic models of agent futurescited by 1
  12. 2026Steering Generative Robot Policies with Lexicographic Preferencescited by 1
  13. 2025Learning Smooth State-Dependent Traversability from Dense Point Cloudscited by 0
  14. 2025ProTerrain: Probabilistic Physics-Informed Rough Terrain World Modelingcited by 0
  15. 2026CoCoNav: Conformal Control for Safe Robot Navigation in Crowdscited by 0