# Elevation Mapping for Locomotion and Navigation using GPU

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2204.12876 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.12876/

## Key facts

- Cited by 43 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 27 Apr 2022.

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 43)

- [NaVILA: Legged Robot Vision-Language-Action Model for Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04453/) (2024)
- [Legged Locomotion in Challenging Terrains using Egocentric Vision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.07638/) (2022)
- [DTC: Deep Tracking Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15462/) (2023)
- [Learning Robust Autonomous Navigation and Locomotion for Wheeled-Legged Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.01792/) (2024)
- [Fast Traversability Estimation for Wild Visual Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.08510/) (2023)
- [Hybrid Internal Model: Learning Agile Legged Locomotion with Simulated Robot Response](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.11460/) (2023)
- [Resilient Legged Local Navigation: Learning to Traverse with Compromised Perception End-to-End](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03581/) (2023)
- [Wild Visual Navigation: Fast Traversability Learning via Pre-Trained Models and Online Self-Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07110/) (2024)
- [Mimicking-Bench: A Benchmark for Generalizable Humanoid-Scene Interaction Learning via Human Mimicking](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.17730/) (2024)
- [Learning Risk-Aware Quadrupedal Locomotion using Distributional Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.14246/) (2023)
- [MEM: Multi-Modal Elevation Mapping for Robotics and Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16818/) (2023)
- [Spatially-Enhanced Recurrent Memory for Long-Range Mapless Navigation via End-to-End Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.05997/) (2025)
- [Pixel to Elevation: Learning to Predict Elevation Maps at Long Range using Images for Autonomous Offroad Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.17484/) (2024)
- [Distillation-PPO: A Novel Two-Stage Reinforcement Learning Framework for Humanoid Robot Perceptive Locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.08299/) (2025)
- [EgoHDM: An Online Egocentric-Inertial Human Motion Capture, Localization, and Dense Mapping System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00343/) (2024)
- [Bridging Active Exploration and Uncertainty-Aware Deployment Using Probabilistic Ensemble Neural Network Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.12240/) (2023)
- [Reinforcement Learning for Wheeled Mobility on Vertically Challenging Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.02383/) (2024)
- [VAMOS: A Hierarchical Vision-Language-Action Model for Capability-Modulated and Steerable Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.20818/) (2025)
- [BeautyMap: Binary-Encoded Adaptable Ground Matrix for Dynamic Points Removal in Global Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.07283/) (2024)
- [DreamWaQ++: Obstacle-Aware Quadrupedal Locomotion With Resilient Multi-Modal Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.19709/) (2024)
- [Safe Navigation in Unstructured Environments by Minimizing Uncertainty in Control and Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14601/) (2023)
- [UFO: Uncertainty-aware LiDAR-image Fusion for Off-road Semantic Terrain Map Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.02642/) (2024)
- [PACER: Preference-conditioned All-terrain Costmap Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.23488/) (2024)
- [VertiSelector: Automatic Curriculum Learning for Wheeled Mobility on Vertically Challenging Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.17469/) (2024)
- [No More Blind Spots: Learning Vision-Based Omnidirectional Bipedal Locomotion for Challenging Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.11929/) (2025)
- [Scaling Rough Terrain Locomotion with Automatic Curriculum Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.17428/) (2026)
- [WildOS: Open-Vocabulary Object Search in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.19308/) (2026)
- [Federated Multi-Agent Mapping for Planetary Exploration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.02289/) (2024)
- [Real-Time Metric-Semantic Mapping for Autonomous Navigation in Outdoor Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.00291/) (2024)
- [T-CBF: Traversability-based Control Barrier Function to Navigate Vertically Challenging Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.06083/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Perceiving the surrounding environment is crucial for autonomous mobile robots. An elevation map provides a memory-efficient and simple yet powerful geometric representation for ground robots. The robots can use this information for navigation in an unknown environment or perceptive locomotion control over rough terrain. Depending on the application, various post processing steps may be incorporated, such as smoothing, inpainting or plane segmentation. In this work, we present an elevation mapping pipeline leveraging GPU for fast and efficient processing with additional features both for navigation and locomotion. We demonstrated our mapping framework through extensive hardware experiments. Our mapping software was successfully deployed for underground exploration during DARPA Subterranean Challenge and for various experiments of quadrupedal locomotion.