# LocoMamba: Vision-Driven Locomotion via End-to-End Deep Reinforcement Learning with Mamba

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.11849 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.11849/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Video, motion and generative Mamba models, one of 10 directions in State-space sequence models (S4, Mamba).
- Builds on 27 of its 52 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 16 Aug 2025.

## Placed in

- State-space sequence models (S4, Mamba) / [Video, motion and generative Mamba models](https://mlsanity.com/ssm/video-motion-and-generative-mamba-models/)
- Deep reinforcement learning methods / [RL for robot locomotion and manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/rl-for-robot-locomotion-and-manipulation/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Mamba: Linear-Time Sequence Modeling with Selective State Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.00752/) (2023)
- [Efficiently Modeling Long Sequences with Structured State Spaces](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.00396/) (2021)
- [Learning Quadrupedal Locomotion over Challenging Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.11251/) (2020)
- [RMA: Rapid Motor Adaptation for Legged Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.04034/) (2021)
- [Learning agile and dynamic motor skills for legged robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.08652/) (2019)
- [A Survey of Convolutional Neural Networks: Analysis, Applications, and Prospects](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.02806/) (2020)
- [Sim-to-Real: Learning Agile Locomotion For Quadruped Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.10332/) (2018)
- [Active Domain Randomization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.04762/) (2019)
- [Rapid Locomotion via Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.02824/) (2022)
- [Reinforcement Learning for Robust Parameterized Locomotion Control of Bipedal Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.14295/) (2021)
- [FusionMamba: Dynamic Feature Enhancement for Multimodal Image Fusion with Mamba](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.09498/) (2024)
- [Learning Vision-Guided Quadrupedal Locomotion End-to-End with Cross-Modal Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.03996/) (2021)
- [Dynamics Randomization Revisited:A Case Study for Quadrupedal Locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.02404/) (2020)
- [Learning Vision-Based Bipedal Locomotion for Challenging Terrain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.14594/) (2023)
- [Multimodal Fusion and Vision-Language Models: A Survey for Robot Vision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.02477/) (2025)
- [GLiDE: Generalizable Quadrupedal Locomotion in Diverse Environments with a Centroidal Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.09771/) (2021)
- [Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Quadruped Locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.08926/) (2019)
- [Feedback MPC for Torque-Controlled Legged Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.06144/) (2019)
- [World Model-based Perception for Visual Legged Locomotion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.16784/) (2024)
- [COMO: Cross-Mamba Interaction and Offset-Guided Fusion for Multimodal Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18076/) (2024)
- [AlignMamba: Enhancing Multimodal Mamba with Local and Global Cross-modal Alignment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.00833/) (2024)
- [DepMamba: Progressive Fusion Mamba for Multimodal Depression Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.15936/) (2024)
- [ViTAL: Vision-Based Terrain-Aware Locomotion for Legged Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.01246/) (2022)
- [Accelerating Model Predictive Control for Legged Robots through Distributed Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.11742/) (2024)
- [Guided Reinforcement Learning for Omnidirectional 3D Jumping in Quadruped Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.16481/) (2025)
- [Adaptive Non-linear Centroidal MPC with Stability Guarantees for Robust Locomotion of Legged Robots](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.01144/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [HydroShear: Hydroelastic Shear Simulation for Tactile Sim-to-Real Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.00446/) (2026)
- [QuadKAN: KAN-Enhanced Quadruped Motion Control via End-to-End Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.19153/) (2025)
- [Vision-Proprioception Fusion with Mamba2 in End-to-End Reinforcement Learning for Motion Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.07593/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce LocoMamba, a vision-driven cross-modal DRL framework built on selective state-space models, specifically leveraging Mamba, that achieves near-linear-time sequence modeling, effectively captures long-range dependencies, and enables efficient training with longer sequences. First, we embed proprioceptive states with a multilayer perceptron and patchify depth images with a lightweight convolutional neural network, producing compact tokens that improve state representation. Second, stacked Mamba layers fuse these tokens via near-linear-time selective scanning, reducing latency and memory footprint, remaining robust to token length and image resolution, and providing an inductive bias that mitigates overfitting. Third, we train the policy end-to-end with Proximal Policy Optimization under terrain and appearance randomization and an obstacle-density curriculum, using a compact state-centric reward that balances progress, smoothness, and safety. We evaluate our method in challenging simulated environments with static and moving obstacles as well as uneven terrain. Compared with state-of-the-art baselines, our method achieves higher returns and success rates with fewer collisions, exhibits stronger generalization to unseen terrains and obstacle densities, and improves training efficiency by converging in fewer updates under the same compute budget.