# Fast Traversability Estimation for Wild Visual Navigation

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.08510 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2305.08510/

## Key facts

- Cited by 44 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 43 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 May 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [PyTorch: An Imperative Style, High-Performance Deep Learning Library](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1912.01703/) (2019)
- [Emerging Properties in Self-Supervised Vision Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.14294/) (2021)
- [Learning robust perceptive locomotion for quadrupedal robots in the wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.08117/) (2022)
- [Unsupervised Semantic Segmentation by Distilling Feature Correspondences](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.08414/) (2022)
- [BADGR: An Autonomous Self-Supervised Learning-Based Navigation System](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05700/) (2020)
- [Elevation Mapping for Locomotion and Navigation using GPU](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.12876/) (2022)
- [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)
- [WayFAST: Navigation with Predictive Traversability in the Field](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.12071/) (2022)
- [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)
- [Autonomous Exploration Development Environment and the Planning Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14573/) (2021)
- [GrASPE: Graph based Multimodal Fusion for Robot Navigation in Unstructured Outdoor Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.05722/) (2022)
- [ScaTE: A Scalable Framework for Self-Supervised Traversability Estimation in Unstructured Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.06522/) (2022)
- [Learning Ground Traversability from Simulations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.05368/) (2017)
- [Heterogeneous Ground and Air Platforms, Homogeneous Sensing: Team CSIRO Data61's Approach to the DARPA Subterranean Challenge](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09053/) (2021)
- [Proactive Anomaly Detection for Robot Navigation with Multi-Sensor Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.01146/) (2022)
- [An Efficient Locally Reactive Controller for Safe Navigation in Visual Teach and Repeat Missions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.03938/) (2022)
- [Energy-based Legged Robots Terrain Traversability Modeling via Deep Inverse Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.03034/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 44)

- [Navigation World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.03572/) (2024)
- [RoadRunner -- Learning Traversability Estimation for Autonomous Off-road Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.19341/) (2024)
- [Resilient Legged Local Navigation: Learning to Traverse with Compromised Perception End-to-End](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03581/) (2023)
- [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 Risk-Aware Quadrupedal Locomotion using Distributional Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.14246/) (2023)
- [Towards Unified World Models for Visual Navigation via Memory-Augmented Planning and Foresight](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.08713/) (2025)
- [DTG : Diffusion-based Trajectory Generation for Mapless Global Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.09900/) (2024)
- [Learning Vision-based Pursuit-Evasion Robot Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.16185/) (2023)
- [STERLING: Self-Supervised Terrain Representation Learning from Unconstrained Robot Experience](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.15302/) (2023)
- [MEM: Multi-Modal Elevation Mapping for Robotics and Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16818/) (2023)
- [Learning to See Physical Properties with Active Sensing Motor Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.01405/) (2023)
- [Identifying Terrain Physical Parameters from Vision -- Towards Physical-Parameter-Aware Locomotion and Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.16567/) (2024)
- [Language-Conditioned World Modeling for Visual Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.26741/) (2026)
- [PIETRA: Physics-Informed Evidential Learning for Traversing Out-of-Distribution Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.03005/) (2024)
- [Wait, That Feels Familiar: Learning to Extrapolate Human Preferences for Preference Aligned Path Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.09912/) (2023)
- [Imitation Learning from a Single Temporally Misaligned Video](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.05397/) (2025)
- [GeNIE: A Generalizable Navigation System for In-the-Wild Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.17960/) (2025)
- [Safe Navigation in Unstructured Environments by Minimizing Uncertainty in Control and Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.14601/) (2023)
- [Learning Semantic Traversability with Egocentric Video and Automated Annotation Strategy](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.02989/) (2024)
- [RoadRunner M&M -- Learning Multi-range Multi-resolution Traversability Maps for Autonomous Off-road Navigation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.10940/) (2024)
- [NavWM: A Unified Navigation World Model for Foresight-Driven Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.24101/) (2026)
- [ZSL-RPPO: Zero-Shot Learning for Quadrupedal Locomotion in Challenging Terrains using Recurrent Proximal Policy Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.01928/) (2024)
- [Risk-Guided Diffusion: Toward Deploying Robot Foundation Models in Space, Where Failure Is Not An Option](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.17601/) (2025)
- [ZeST: A VLM-based Zero-Shot Traversability Navigation for Unknown Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.19131/) (2025)
- [WildOS: Open-Vocabulary Object Search in the Wild](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.19308/) (2026)
- [TOP-Nav: Legged Navigation Integrating Terrain, Obstacle and Proprioception Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.15256/) (2024)
- [IN-Sight: Interactive Navigation through Sight](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.00343/) (2024)
- [TE-NeXt: A LiDAR-Based 3D Sparse Convolutional Network for Traversability Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.01395/) (2024)
- [Holistic Fusion: Task- and Setup-Agnostic Robot Localization and State Estimation with Factor Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.06479/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Natural environments such as forests and grasslands are challenging for robotic navigation because of the false perception of rigid obstacles from high grass, twigs, or bushes. In this work, we propose Wild Visual Navigation (WVN), an online self-supervised learning system for traversability estimation which uses only vision. The system is able to continuously adapt from a short human demonstration in the field. It leverages high-dimensional features from self-supervised visual transformer models, with an online scheme for supervision generation that runs in real-time on the robot. We demonstrate the advantages of our approach with experiments and ablation studies in challenging environments in forests, parks, and grasslands. Our system is able to bootstrap the traversable terrain segmentation in less than 5 min of in-field training time, enabling the robot to navigate in complex outdoor terrains - negotiating obstacles in high grass as well as a 1.4 km footpath following. While our experiments were executed with a quadruped robot, ANYmal, the approach presented can generalize to any ground robot.