# ScaTE: A Scalable Framework for Self-Supervised Traversability Estimation in Unstructured Environments

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.06522 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.06522/

## Key facts

- Cited by 21 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 19 of its 39 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 14 Sep 2022.

## Builds on (most cited first, 19 of 19)

- [Unsupervised Learning of Visual Features by Contrasting Cluster Assignments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09882/) (2020)
- [Sinkhorn Distances: Lightspeed Computation of Optimal Transportation Distances](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1306.0895/) (2013)
- [RandLA-Net: Efficient Semantic Segmentation of Large-Scale Point Clouds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.11236/) (2019)
- [Self-labelling via simultaneous clustering and representation learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05371/) (2019)
- [Positive-Unlabeled Learning with Non-Negative Risk Estimator](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1703.00593/) (2017)
- [Learning from positive and unlabeled data: a survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.04820/) (2018)
- [RELLIS-3D Dataset: Data, Benchmarks and Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.12954/) (2020)
- [BADGR: An Autonomous Self-Supervised Learning-Based Navigation System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05700/) (2020)
- [Information Theoretic Model Predictive Control: Theory and Applications to Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.02342/) (2017)
- [Self-Supervised Visual Terrain Classification from Unsupervised Acoustic Feature Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.03227/) (2019)
- [Safe Robot Navigation via Multi-Modal Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.07934/) (2020)
- [Locomotion Policy Guided Traversability Learning using Volumetric Representations of Complex Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.15854/) (2022)
- [STEP: Stochastic Traversability Evaluation and Planning for Risk-Aware Off-road Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.02828/) (2021)
- [GrASPE: Graph based Multimodal Fusion for Robot Navigation in Unstructured Outdoor Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.05722/) (2022)
- [Self-Supervised Traversability Prediction by Learning to Reconstruct Safe Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.01329/) (2022)
- [TERP: Reliable Planning in Uneven Outdoor Environments using Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.05120/) (2021)
- [TNS: Terrain Traversability Mapping and Navigation System for Autonomous Excavators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.06250/) (2021)
- [Multi-Modal Anomaly Detection for Unstructured and Uncertain Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.08637/) (2020)
- [Smooth Model Predictive Path Integral Control without Smoothing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.09988/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 21 of 21)

- [Fast Traversability Estimation for Wild Visual Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.08510/) (2023)
- [Learning Off-Road Terrain Traversability with Self-Supervisions Only](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.18896/) (2023)
- [RoadRunner -- Learning Traversability Estimation for Autonomous Off-road Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.19341/) (2024)
- [EVORA: Deep Evidential Traversability Learning for Risk-Aware Off-Road Autonomy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.06234/) (2023)
- [Wild Visual Navigation: Fast Traversability Learning via Pre-Trained Models and Online Self-Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07110/) (2024)
- [Learning Terrain-Aware Kinodynamic Model for Autonomous Off-Road Rally Driving With Model Predictive Path Integral Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.00676/) (2023)
- [Bridging Active Exploration and Uncertainty-Aware Deployment Using Probabilistic Ensemble Neural Network Dynamics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.12240/) (2023)
- [Autonomous Driving in Unstructured Environments: How Far Have We Come?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.07701/) (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)
- [Watch Your STEPP: Semantic Traversability Estimation using Pose Projected Features](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.17594/) (2025)
- [Trajectory-based Road Autolabeling with Lidar-Camera Fusion in Winter Conditions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.02370/) (2024)
- [TE-NeXt: A LiDAR-Based 3D Sparse Convolutional Network for Traversability Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01395/) (2024)
- [Competency-Aware Planning for Probabilistically Safe Navigation Under Perception Uncertainty](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.06111/) (2024)
- [Self-supervised cost of transport estimation for multimodal path planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.06101/) (2024)
- [METAVerse: Meta-Learning Traversability Cost Map for Off-Road Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.13991/) (2023)
- [TADAP: Trajectory-Aided Drivable area Auto-labeling with Pre-trained self-supervised features in winter driving conditions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.12954/) (2023)
- [Real-time Spatial-temporal Traversability Assessment via Feature-based Sparse Gaussian Process](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.04134/) (2025)
- [Learning Smooth State-Dependent Traversability from Dense Point Clouds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.04362/) (2025)
- [OT-Drive: Out-of-Distribution Off-Road Traversable Area Segmentation via Optimal Transport](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.09952/) (2026)
- [SyNeT: Synthetic Negatives for Traversability Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.00814/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

For the safe and successful navigation of autonomous vehicles in unstructured environments, the traversability of terrain should vary based on the driving capabilities of the vehicles. Actual driving experience can be utilized in a self-supervised fashion to learn vehicle-specific traversability. However, existing methods for learning self-supervised traversability are not highly scalable for learning the traversability of various vehicles. In this work, we introduce a scalable framework for learning self-supervised traversability, which can learn the traversability directly from vehicle-terrain interaction without any human supervision. We train a neural network that predicts the proprioceptive experience that a vehicle would undergo from 3D point clouds. Using a novel PU learning method, the network simultaneously identifies non-traversable regions where estimations can be overconfident. With driving data of various vehicles gathered from simulation and the real world, we show that our framework is capable of learning the self-supervised traversability of various vehicles. By integrating our framework with a model predictive controller, we demonstrate that estimated traversability results in effective navigation that enables distinct maneuvers based on the driving characteristics of the vehicles. In addition, experimental results validate the ability of our method to identify and avoid non-traversable regions.