Awesome Traversability Analysis

A curated list of awesome terrain classification, traversability analysis papers and codes for robotic navigation in the real-world 😎

Last update: June, 2024

Keep updating... Any PRs are welcome! 😃

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Notice

2024.05.17 - Updated ICRA 2024 papers
2023.10.05 - Updated IROS 2023 papers

Type 'GitHub' in the search bar for finding open-sourced projects

Table of Contents

• Survey papers
• Awesome papers list
  • 2023 - 2024 papers
  • Geometry-based
  • Appearance-based
  • Proprioception-based
  • Hybrid approaches
  • Terrain-aware Navigation
• Public Datasets

Survey papers

• Terrain traversability analysis methods for unmanned ground vehicles: A survey, Papadakis et al., Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence 2013 | bibtex

• A Survey on Terrain Traversability Analysis for Autonomous Ground Vehicles: Methods, Sensors, and Challenges, Borges et al., Journal of Field Robotics 2022 | bibtex

• Learning-Based Methods of Perception and Navigation for Ground Vehicles in Unstructured Environments: A Review, Guastella et al., Sensors 2020 | bibtex

• A Survey of Traversability Estimation for Mobile Robots, Sevastopoulos et al., IEEE Access 2022 | arXiv | bibtex

• Survey on Datasets for Perception in Unstructured Outdoor Environments, Mortimer et al., Arxiv 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

Awesome papers list

2023 - 2024 Papers

• Pronav: Proprioceptive traversability estimation for legged robot navigation in outdoor environments, Elnoor et al., RA-L 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

• Learning Self-Supervised Traversability With Navigation Experiences of Mobile Robots: A Risk-Aware Self-Training Approach, Cho et al., RA-L 2024| bibtex | Github

• Robot-Dependent Traversability Estimation for Outdoor Environments using Deep Multimodal Variational Autoencoders, Eder et al., ICRA 2024 | bibtex

• Transformer-based Traversability Analysis for Autonomous Navigation in Outdoor Environments with Water Hazard, Xu et al., T-IV 2024 | bibtex

• Evidential Semantic Mapping in Off-road Environments with Uncertainty-aware Bayesian Kernel Inference, Kim et al., arXiv 2024, | arXiv | bibtex

• Learning-based Traversability Costmap for Autonomous Off-road Navigation, Zhu et al., arXiv 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

• Learning Semantic Traversability with Egocentric Video and Automated Annotation Strategy, Kim et al., arXiv 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

• TE-NeXt: A LiDAR-Based 3D Sparse Convolutional Network for Traversability Estimation, Santo et al., arXiv 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

• History-Aware Planning for Risk-free Autonomous Navigation on Unknown Uneven Terrain, Wang et al., arXiv 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

• Follow the Footprints: Self-supervised Traversability Estimation for Off-road Vehicle Navigation based on Geometric and Visual Cues, Jeon et al., ICRA 2024 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• Uncertainty-Aware Trajectory Planning: Using Uncertainty Quantification and Propagation in Traversability Prediction of Planetary Rovers, Takemura et al., RA-M 2024 | bibtex

• V-STRONG: Visual Self-Supervised Traversability Learning for Off-road Navigation, Jung et al., ICRA 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

• Probabilistic Traversability Model for Risk-Aware Motion Planning in Off-Road Environments, Cai et al., IROS 2023 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• Circular Accessible Depth: A Robust Traversability Representation for UGV Navigation, Xie et al., T-RO 2023 | arXiv | bibtex

• GrASPE: Graph Based Multimodal Fusion for Robot Navigation in Outdoor Environments, Weerakoon et al., RA-L 2023 | arXiv | bibtex

• Real-Time Elevation Mapping with Bayesian Ground Filling and Traversability Analysis for UGV Navigation, Xie et al., IROS 2023 | bibtex

• Fast Traversability Estimation for Wild Visual Navigation, Frey et al., RSS 2023 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• MTG: Mapless Trajectory Generator with Traversability Coverage for Outdoor Navigation, Liang et al., ICRA 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

• STAGE: Scalable and Traversability-Aware Graph Based Exploration Planner for Dynamically Varying Environments, Patel et al., ICRA 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

• WayFASTER: A Self-Supervised Traversability Prediction for Increased Navigation Awareness, Gasparino et al., ICRA 2024 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• Gaussian Process-Based Traversability Analysis for Terrain Mapless Navigation, Leininger et al., ICRA 2024 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• A Framework for Real-Time Generation of Multi-Directional Traversability Maps in Unstructured Environments, Huang et al., ICRA 2024

• Traversability-aware Adaptive Optimization for Path Planning and Control in Mountainous Terrain, Yoo et al., RA-L 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

• DreamWaQ: Learning Robust Quadrupedal Locomotion With Implicit Terrain Imagination via Deep Reinforcement Learning, Nahrendra et al., ICRA 2023 | arXiv | bibtex

• Learning Off-Road Terrain Traversability With Self-Supervisions Only, Seo et al., RA-L 2023 | arXiv | bibtex

• Risk-aware Path Planning via Probabilistic Fusion of Traversability Prediction for Planetary Rovers on Heterogeneous Terrains, Endo et al., ICRA 2023 | arXiv | bibtex

• ScaTE: A Scalable Framework for Self- Supervised Traversability Estimation in Unstructured Environments, Seo et al., RA-L 2023 | arXiv | bibtex

• Uncertainty Estimation for Planetary Robotic Terrain Segmentation, Muller et al., IEEE Aerospace Conference 2023 | bibtex

• State estimation and traversability map construction method of a quadruped robot on soft uneven terrain, Kang et al., Journal of Field Robotics 2023 | bibtex

• Traversability analysis for autonomous driving in complex environment: A LiDAR‐based terrain modeling approach, Xue et al., Journal of Field Robotics 2023 | arXiv | bibtex

• Terrain Classification Enhanced with Uncertainty for Space Exploration Robots from Proprioceptive Data, Alvarez et al., LXAI @ ICML 2023 Regular Deadline Poster | arXiv | bibtex

Geometry-based approaches

Dense Terrain Modeling

• Probabilistic Terrain Mapping for Mobile Robots With Uncertain Localization, Fankhauser et al., RA-L 2018 | bibtex | Github

• OctoMap: An efficient probabilistic 3D mapping framework based on octrees, Hornung et al., Autonomous Robots 2013 | bibtex | Github

• Voxblox: Incremental 3D Euclidean Signed Distance Fields for On-Board MAV Planning, Oleynikova et al., IROS 2017 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

Terrain Representation Learning

• Occupancy Networks: Learning 3D Reconstruction in Function Space, Mescheder et al., CVPR 2019 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• Learning-aided 3-D occupancy mapping with Bayesian generalized kernel inference, Doherty et al., T-RO 2019 | bibtex | Github

• DeepSDF: Learning Continuous Signed Distance Functions for Shape Representation, Part et al., CVPR 2019 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• Real-Time Neural Dense Elevation Mapping for Urban Terrain With Uncertainty Estimations, Yang et al., RA-L 2022 | arXiv | bibtex

• Neural Scene Representation for Locomotion on Structured Terrain, Hoeller et al., RA-L 2022 | arXiv | bibtex

• Reconstructing Occluded Elevation Information in Terrain Maps With Self-Supervised Learning, Stolzle et al., RA-L 2022 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• Bayesian generalized kernel inference for terrain traversability mapping, Shan et al., CoRL 2018 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• RoadBEV: Road Surface Reconstruction in Bird’s Eye View, Zhao et al., arXiv 2024 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

Uncertainty & risk estimation

• Active Traversability Learning via Risk-Aware Information Gathering for Planetary Exploration Rovers, Endo et al., RA-L 2022 | bibtex

• EVORA: Deep Evidential Traversability Learning for Risk-Aware Off-Road Autonomy, Cai et al., arXiv 2023 | arXiv | bibtex

• These Maps are Made for Walking: Real-Time Terrain Property Estimation for Mobile Robots, Ewen et al., RA-L 2022 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• STEP: Stochastic Traversability Evaluation and Planning for Risk-Aware Off-road Navigation, Fan et al., RSS 2021 | arXiv | bibtex

Learning from demonstration

• Locomotion Policy Guided Traversability Learning using Volumetric Representations of Complex Environments, Frey et al., IROS 2022 | arXiv | bibtex

• A Self-Training Approach-Based Traversability Analysis for Mobile Robots in Urban Environments, Lee et al., ICRA 2021 | bibtex

• Adaptive Terrain Traversability Prediction based on Multi-Source Transfer Gaussian Processes, Inotsume et al., IROS 2021 | bibtex

• ForestTrav: 3D LiDAR-Only Forest Traversability Estimation for Autonomous Ground Vehicles, Ruetz et al., IEEE Access 2024 | arXiv | bibtex

• Forest Traversability Mapping (FTM): Traversability estimation using 3D voxel-based Normal Distributed Transform to enable forest navigation, Ruetz et al., IROS 2022 | bibtex

• Learning Ground Traversability From Simulations, Chavez et al., RA-L 2018 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• Traversability Analysis for Mobile Robots in Outdoor Environments: A Semi-Supervised Learning Approach Based on 3D-Lidar Data, Suger et al., ICRA 2015 | bibtex

• Terrain Classification in Complex Three‐dimensional Outdoor Environments, Santamaria et al., Journal of Field Robotics 2015 | bibtex

Appearance-based approaches

Image segmentation

• GA-Nav: Efficient Terrain Segmentation for Robot Navigation in Unstructured Outdoor Environments, Guan et al., RA-L 2022 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• TerraPN: Unstructured Terrain Navigation using Online Self-Supervised Learning, Sathyamoorthy et al., IROS 2022 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• Mars Terrain Segmentation with Less Labels, Goh et al., AERO 2022 | arXiv | bibtex

• Regressed Terrain Traversability Cost for Autonomous Navigation Based on Image Textures, Bekhti et al., Applied Sciences 2020 | bibtex

• Learning terrain segmentation with classifier ensembles for autonomous robot navigation in unstructured environments, Procopio et al., Journal of Field Robotics 2009 | bibtex

Learning from demonstration

• Self-Supervised Traversability Prediction by Learning to Reconstruct Safe Terrain, Schmid et al., IROS 2022 | arXiv | bibtex

• Safe Robot Navigation via Multi-Modal Anomaly Detection, Wellhausen et al., RA-L 2020 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• Where Should I Walk? Predicting Terrain Properties From Images Via Self-Supervised Learning, Wellhausen et al., RA-L 2019 | bibtex

• GONet: A Semi-Supervised Deep Learning Approach For Traversability Estimation, Hirose et al., IROS 2018 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• Find your own way: Weakly-supervised segmentation of path proposals for urban autonomy, Barnes et al., ICRA 2017 | arXiv | bibtex

Proprioception-based approaches

• Deep Spatiotemporal Models for Robust Proprioceptive Terrain Classification, Valada et al., IJRR 2017 | arXiv | bibtex

• Multiclass Terrain Classification using Sound and Vibration from Mobile Robot Terrain Interaction, Libby et al., IROS 2021 | bibtex

Hybrid approaches

• TNS: Terrain Traversability Mapping and Navigation System for Autonomous Excavators, Guan et al., RSS 2022 | arXiv | bibtex

• Self-Supervised Visual Terrain Classification From Unsupervised Acoustic Feature Learning, Zurn et al., T-RO 2020 | arXiv | bibtex

• How Does It Feel? Self-Supervised Costmap Learning for Off-Road Vehicle Traversability, Castro et al., ICRA 2023 | arXiv | bibtex

• How Rough Is the Path? Terrain Traversability Estimation for Local and Global Path Planning, Waibel et al., T-ITS 2022 | bibtex

• An Hybrid Approach to Improve the Performance of Encoder-Decoder Architectures for Traversability Analysis in Urban Environments, Fusaro et al., IV 2022 | bibtex

• Geometric and Visual Terrain Classification for Autonomous Mobile Navigation, Schilling et al., IROS 2017 | bibtex

Terrain-aware Navigation

Reinforcement Learning

• BADGR: An Autonomous Self-Supervised Learning-Based Navigation System, Kahn et al., RA-L 2021 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

• A Sim-to-Real Pipeline for Deep Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Robot Navigation in Cluttered Rough Terrain, Hu et al., RA-L 2021 | bibtex

• TERP: Reliable Planning in Uneven Outdoor Environments using Deep Reinforcement Learning, Weerakoon et al., ICRA 2022 | arXiv | bibtex | Github

Traditional Planning & Control

• Exploration of 3D terrains using potential fields with elevation-based local distortions, Maffei et al., ICRA 2020 | bibtex

• Long-Term Robot Navigation in Indoor Environments Estimating Patterns in Traversability Changes, Nardi et al., ICRA 2020 | arXiv | bibtex

• Perceptive Locomotion in Rough Terrain – Online Foothold Optimization, Jenelten et al., RA-L 2020 | bibtex

• Driving on Point Clouds: Motion Planning, Trajectory Optimization, and Terrain Assessment in Generic Nonplanar Environments, Krusi et al., Journal of Field Robotics 2017 | bibtex

• Navigation Planning for Legged Robots in Challenging Terrain, Wermelinger et al., IROS 2016 | bibtex | Github

• Fuzzy Based Traversability Analysis for a Mobile Robot on Rough Terrain, Tanaka et al., ICRA 2015 | bibtex

Public Datasets

Urban (Structured / Semi-structured) terrains

• KITTI VIsion Benchmark Suite : Stereo Camera images, LiDAR pointclouds, GPS/IMU data
• SemanticKITTI : LiDAR points labeled with semantic class
• nuScenes : The data from 6 cameras, 1 LiDAR, 5 radars, and GPS/IMU
• BDD100k : Video images annotated for object detection, lane detection, action recognition.
• Cityscapes : semantic segmentation with high-resolution images annotated at the pixel level
• KAIST Urban Dataset : The data from multiple LiDARs, stereo cameras, GPS, and IMU.

See more datasets at:

• awesome-autonomous-driving-dataasets
• awesome-slam-datasets

Off-road (Unstructured) terrains

• RELLIS-3D : Data with Stereo Camera images, LiDAR pointclouds, GPS/IMU
• RUGD : Video dataset annotated with pixel-wise labels
• BotanicGarden : Stereo camera images, LiDAR pointclouds, GPS/IMU, Wheel encoders
• GOOSE : Data with Stereo Camera images, LiDAR pointclouds, GPS/IMU