Energy-Efficient Gait Adaptation via Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Quadrupedal Locomotion Across Diverse Terrains

arXiv:2610.10297v1 Announce Type: cross Abstract: While energy efficiency is a critical objective for legged-robot locomotion control, achieving low energy consumption while maintaining robust performance across different velocity ranges and terrain conditions remains a key challenge. This is particularly true for end-to-end RL policies, where gait generation, motion execution, and energy optimization are tightly coupled, leading to high sensitivity to reward design. In this work, we propose a hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) framework that separates a high-frequency policy for stable and robust joint-level motion execution from low-frequency gait adaptation that explicitly minimizes the cost of transport (CoT). The three-stage Isaac-based training procedure enables zero-shot sim-to-real transfer with improved tracking accuracy, robustness, and energy efficiency. The learned hierarchy exhibits automatic speed-dependent gait adaptation, transitioning from pacing at low speeds to trotting at higher speeds. We validate the proposed approach in simulation against representative single-policy and hierarchical locomotion baselines, demonstrating reduced CoT over a broad range of commanded velocities, while maintaining robust locomotion across flat, uneven rough, and inclined terrains. We further demonstrate its practical feasibility through zero-shot deployment on a physical Unitree AlienGo quadruped.

Abstract:While energy efficiency is a critical objective for legged-robot locomotion control, achieving low energy consumption while maintaining robust performance across different velocity ranges and terrain conditions remains a key challenge. This is particularly true for end-to-end RL policies, where gait generation, motion execution, and energy optimization are tightly coupled, leading to high sensitivity to reward design. In this work, we propose a hierarchical reinforcement learning (HRL) framework that separates a high-frequency policy for stable and robust joint-level motion execution from low-frequency gait adaptation that explicitly minimizes the cost of transport (CoT). The three-stage Isaac-based training procedure enables zero-shot sim-to-real transfer with improved tracking accuracy, robustness, and energy efficiency. The learned hierarchy exhibits automatic speed-dependent gait adaptation, transitioning from pacing at low speeds to trotting at higher speeds. We validate the proposed approach in simulation against representative single-policy and hierarchical locomotion baselines, demonstrating reduced CoT over a broad range of commanded velocities, while maintaining robust locomotion across flat, uneven rough, and inclined terrains. We further demonstrate its practical feasibility through zero-shot deployment on a physical Unitree AlienGo quadruped.

9 pages. Submitted to IEEE ICRA 2027. Ammar Issa, Anubhav Singh, and Anton Tsaritsin contributed equally

Robotics (cs.RO); Machine Learning (cs.LG)

arXiv:2610.10297 [cs.RO]

(or arXiv:2610.10297v1 [cs.RO] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2610.10297 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite (pending registration)

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Energy-Efficient Gait Adaptation via Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Quadrupedal Locomotion Across Diverse Terrains

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