{"id":"https://openalex.org/W4416749799","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1109/iros60139.2025.11247117","title":"C-TRAC: Terrain-Adaptive Control for Articulated Tracked Robots via Contact-Aware Reinforcement Learning","display_name":"C-TRAC: Terrain-Adaptive Control for Articulated Tracked Robots via Contact-Aware Reinforcement Learning","publication_year":2025,"publication_date":"2025-10-19","ids":{"openalex":"https://openalex.org/W4416749799","doi":"https://doi.org/10.1109/iros60139.2025.11247117"},"language":null,"primary_location":{"id":"doi:10.1109/iros60139.2025.11247117","is_oa":false,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1109/iros60139.2025.11247117","pdf_url":null,"source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)","raw_type":"proceedings-article"},"type":"article","indexed_in":["crossref"],"open_access":{"is_oa":false,"oa_status":"closed","oa_url":null,"any_repository_has_fulltext":false},"authorships":[{"author_position":"first","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5101246452","display_name":"Hainan Pan","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I170215575","display_name":"National University of Defense Technology","ror":"https://ror.org/05d2yfz11","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Hainan Pan","raw_affiliation_strings":["National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5100608030","display_name":"Kaihong Huang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2424-8524"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I170215575","display_name":"National University of Defense Technology","ror":"https://ror.org/05d2yfz11","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Kaihong Huang","raw_affiliation_strings":["National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5032262344","display_name":"Xieyuanli Chen","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0955-6681"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I170215575","display_name":"National University of Defense Technology","ror":"https://ror.org/05d2yfz11","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Xieyuanli Chen","raw_affiliation_strings":["National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5017133568","display_name":"Hongchuan Zhang","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8074-3642"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I170215575","display_name":"National University of Defense Technology","ror":"https://ror.org/05d2yfz11","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Hongchuan Zhang","raw_affiliation_strings":["National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5101188476","display_name":"Junfeng Shi","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7775-3406"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I170215575","display_name":"National University of Defense Technology","ror":"https://ror.org/05d2yfz11","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Junfeng Shi","raw_affiliation_strings":["National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5029588255","display_name":"Chuang Cheng","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2316-1432"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I170215575","display_name":"National University of Defense Technology","ror":"https://ror.org/05d2yfz11","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Chuang Cheng","raw_affiliation_strings":["National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}]},{"author_position":"middle","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5111020968","display_name":"Bailiang Chen","orcid":null},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I170215575","display_name":"National University of Defense Technology","ror":"https://ror.org/05d2yfz11","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Bailiang Chen","raw_affiliation_strings":["National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}]},{"author_position":"last","author":{"id":"https://openalex.org/A5036075088","display_name":"Huimin Lu","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6375-581X"},"institutions":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/I170215575","display_name":"National University of Defense Technology","ror":"https://ror.org/05d2yfz11","country_code":"CN","type":"education","lineage":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}],"countries":["CN"],"is_corresponding":false,"raw_author_name":"Huimin Lu","raw_affiliation_strings":["National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China"],"raw_orcid":null,"affiliations":[{"raw_affiliation_string":"National University of Defense Technology,College of Intelligence Science and Technology, and the National Key Laboratory of Equipment State Sensing and Smart Support,China","institution_ids":["https://openalex.org/I170215575"]}]}],"institutions":[],"countries_distinct_count":1,"institutions_distinct_count":8,"corresponding_author_ids":[],"corresponding_institution_ids":[],"apc_list":null,"apc_paid":null,"fwci":0.4905,"has_fulltext":false,"cited_by_count":1,"citation_normalized_percentile":{"value":0.6932589,"is_in_top_1_percent":false,"is_in_top_10_percent":false},"cited_by_percentile_year":{"min":91,"max":95},"biblio":{"volume":null,"issue":null,"first_page":"7289","last_page":"7296"},"is_retracted":false,"is_paratext":false,"is_xpac":false,"primary_topic":{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10879","display_name":"Robotic Locomotion and Control","score":0.9228000044822693,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/2204","display_name":"Biomedical Engineering"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/22","display_name":"Engineering"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},"topics":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10879","display_name":"Robotic Locomotion and Control","score":0.9228000044822693,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/2204","display_name":"Biomedical Engineering"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/22","display_name":"Engineering"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10709","display_name":"Social Robot Interaction and HRI","score":0.012900000438094139,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/3207","display_name":"Social Psychology"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/32","display_name":"Psychology"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/2","display_name":"Social Sciences"}},{"id":"https://openalex.org/T10462","display_name":"Reinforcement Learning in Robotics","score":0.00930000003427267,"subfield":{"id":"https://openalex.org/subfields/1702","display_name":"Artificial Intelligence"},"field":{"id":"https://openalex.org/fields/17","display_name":"Computer Science"},"domain":{"id":"https://openalex.org/domains/3","display_name":"Physical Sciences"}}],"keywords":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/robot","display_name":"Robot","score":0.6265000104904175},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/reinforcement-learning","display_name":"Reinforcement learning","score":0.5493999719619751},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/terrain","display_name":"Terrain","score":0.5181000232696533},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/tree-traversal","display_name":"Tree traversal","score":0.43529999256134033},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/kinematics","display_name":"Kinematics","score":0.4253000020980835},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/benchmark","display_name":"Benchmark (surveying)","score":0.41819998621940613},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/representation","display_name":"Representation (politics)","score":0.39500001072883606},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/autoencoder","display_name":"Autoencoder","score":0.38839998841285706},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/obstacle","display_name":"Obstacle","score":0.37450000643730164},{"id":"https://openalex.org/keywords/stability","display_name":"Stability (learning theory)","score":0.3725000023841858}],"concepts":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/C41008148","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q21198","display_name":"Computer science","level":0,"score":0.7221999764442444},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C154945302","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11660","display_name":"Artificial intelligence","level":1,"score":0.6521999835968018},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C90509273","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11012","display_name":"Robot","level":2,"score":0.6265000104904175},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C97541855","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q830687","display_name":"Reinforcement learning","level":2,"score":0.5493999719619751},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C161840515","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q186131","display_name":"Terrain","level":2,"score":0.5181000232696533},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C140745168","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1210082","display_name":"Tree traversal","level":2,"score":0.43529999256134033},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C31972630","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q844240","display_name":"Computer vision","level":1,"score":0.43209999799728394},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C39920418","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11476","display_name":"Kinematics","level":2,"score":0.4253000020980835},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C185798385","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1161707","display_name":"Benchmark (surveying)","level":2,"score":0.41819998621940613},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2776359362","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2145286","display_name":"Representation (politics)","level":3,"score":0.39500001072883606},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C101738243","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q786435","display_name":"Autoencoder","level":3,"score":0.38839998841285706},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2776650193","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q264661","display_name":"Obstacle","level":2,"score":0.37450000643730164},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C112972136","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7595718","display_name":"Stability (learning theory)","level":2,"score":0.3725000023841858},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C34413123","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q170978","display_name":"Robotics","level":3,"score":0.3700000047683716},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C60692881","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q584529","display_name":"Humanoid robot","level":3,"score":0.3684999942779541},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C19966478","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4810574","display_name":"Mobile robot","level":3,"score":0.36250001192092896},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C65401140","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7353385","display_name":"Robot control","level":4,"score":0.3612000048160553},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C107464732","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q235781","display_name":"Adaptive control","level":3,"score":0.35670000314712524},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C17816587","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1501872","display_name":"Inverse kinematics","level":3,"score":0.35589998960494995},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C139807058","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q352374","display_name":"Adaptation (eye)","level":2,"score":0.3294999897480011},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C203479927","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5165939","display_name":"Controller (irrigation)","level":2,"score":0.3181000053882599},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C74222875","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q16000312","display_name":"Robot kinematics","level":4,"score":0.3167000114917755},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C81302111","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2916417","display_name":"Contact force","level":2,"score":0.30640000104904175},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2779908020","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1424704","display_name":"Legged robot","level":3,"score":0.30169999599456787},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C81074085","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q366872","display_name":"Motion planning","level":3,"score":0.3003999888896942},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C31531917","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q915157","display_name":"Robust control","level":3,"score":0.2928999960422516},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C208081375","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q274502","display_name":"Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry)","level":2,"score":0.2872999906539917},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2780451532","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q759676","display_name":"Task (project management)","level":2,"score":0.2842999994754791},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C6683253","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7075535","display_name":"Obstacle avoidance","level":4,"score":0.28110000491142273},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C145565327","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q852514","display_name":"Motion control","level":3,"score":0.2759000062942505},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C44154836","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q45045","display_name":"Simulation","level":1,"score":0.273499995470047},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C17500928","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q959968","display_name":"Control system","level":2,"score":0.27129998803138733},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C13662910","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q193139","display_name":"Trajectory","level":2,"score":0.2703999876976013},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C2775924081","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q55608371","display_name":"Control (management)","level":2,"score":0.26600000262260437},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C63479239","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7353546","display_name":"Robustness (evolution)","level":3,"score":0.2615000009536743},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C133731056","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4917288","display_name":"Control engineering","level":1,"score":0.2563000023365021},{"id":"https://openalex.org/C172707124","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q423488","display_name":"Actuator","level":2,"score":0.2556000053882599}],"mesh":[],"locations_count":1,"locations":[{"id":"doi:10.1109/iros60139.2025.11247117","is_oa":false,"landing_page_url":"https://doi.org/10.1109/iros60139.2025.11247117","pdf_url":null,"source":null,"license":null,"license_id":null,"version":"publishedVersion","is_accepted":true,"is_published":true,"raw_source_name":"2025 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)","raw_type":"proceedings-article"}],"best_oa_location":null,"sustainable_development_goals":[],"awards":[],"funders":[{"id":"https://openalex.org/F4320306076","display_name":"National Science Foundation","ror":"https://ror.org/021nxhr62"}],"has_content":{"grobid_xml":false,"pdf":false},"content_urls":null,"referenced_works_count":22,"referenced_works":["https://openalex.org/W1524341542","https://openalex.org/W1993408563","https://openalex.org/W2013830186","https://openalex.org/W2018918228","https://openalex.org/W2116674383","https://openalex.org/W2126717220","https://openalex.org/W2144439690","https://openalex.org/W2145339207","https://openalex.org/W2296228853","https://openalex.org/W2566259906","https://openalex.org/W2605102758","https://openalex.org/W2767050701","https://openalex.org/W3208589965","https://openalex.org/W4226143977","https://openalex.org/W4281680575","https://openalex.org/W4285125982","https://openalex.org/W4383108274","https://openalex.org/W4385634399","https://openalex.org/W4386879303","https://openalex.org/W4402354103","https://openalex.org/W4402354114","https://openalex.org/W4407176919"],"related_works":[],"abstract_inverted_index":{"Articulated":[0],"tracked":[1,37],"robots":[2],"face":[3],"significant":[4],"challenges":[5],"in":[6,73,136,197],"maintaining":[7],"stable":[8,177],"locomotion":[9],"over":[10],"uneven":[11],"terrain":[12,95],"due":[13],"to":[14,42,63,75,115,163,174,183],"unknown":[15],"contact":[16,32,78,124],"points":[17],"between":[18,100],"tracks":[19],"and":[20,81,104,139,171,187],"ground,":[21],"which":[22],"are":[23],"critical":[24],"for":[25,126],"dynamic":[26],"control.":[27],"Unlike":[28],"legged":[29],"robots,":[30],"where":[31],"locations":[33],"can":[34],"be":[35],"predicted,":[36],"systems":[38],"require":[39],"real-time":[40],"adaptation":[41],"varying":[43],"terrains.":[44],"This":[45,88],"paper":[46],"presents":[47],"C-TRAC,":[48],"a":[49,58,71,91,117],"terrain-adaptive":[50],"control":[51,118,129],"framework":[52],"that":[53,120],"integrates":[54],"reinforcement":[55],"learning":[56],"with":[57],"contact-modeling":[59],"variational":[60],"autoencoder":[61],"(C-VAE)":[62],"enable":[64],"robust":[65],"obstacle":[66,159],"traversal.":[67],"We":[68],"first":[69],"train":[70],"C-VAE":[72],"simulation":[74],"reconstruct":[76],"high-fidelity":[77],"information":[79],"(position":[80],"binary":[82],"probability)":[83],"from":[84],"noisy":[85],"sensor":[86],"measurements.":[87],"model":[89],"learns":[90],"latent":[92],"representation":[93],"of":[94],"contacts,":[96],"capturing":[97],"complex":[98],"interactions":[99],"the":[101,122,179,203],"robot\u2019s":[102],"kinematics":[103],"environment.":[105],"Subsequently,":[106],"we":[107],"employ":[108],"an":[109],"asymmetric":[110],"Soft":[111],"Actor-Critic":[112],"(SAC)":[113],"algorithm":[114],"optimize":[116],"policy":[119],"leverages":[121],"predicted":[123],"data":[125],"adaptive":[127],"track":[128],"during":[130],"locomotion.":[131],"Extensive":[132],"experiments":[133],"validate":[134],"C-TRAC":[135],"both":[137],"simulated":[138],"real-world":[140],"scenarios.":[141],"In":[142],"benchmark":[143],"tests":[144],"against":[145],"state-of-the-art":[146],"(SOTA)":[147],"methods":[148],"using":[149],"RoboCup":[150],"Rescue":[151],"Robot":[152],"League":[153],"environments,":[154],"our":[155],"approach":[156],"achieves":[157],"superior":[158],"traversal":[160],"speed":[161],"(up":[162,173],"66.67%":[164],"faster":[165],"on":[166,178],"45<sup":[167],"xmlns:mml=\"http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML\"":[168],"xmlns:xlink=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink\">\u25e6</sup>":[169],"staircase)":[170],"stability":[172],"47.53%":[175],"more":[176],"oblique":[180],"terrace)":[181],"compared":[182],"contact-agnostic":[184],"RL":[185],"baselines":[186],"model-based":[188],"methods.":[189],"Notably,":[190],"zero-shot":[191],"sim-to-real":[192],"transfer":[193],"demonstrates":[194],"consistent":[195],"performance":[196],"unstructured":[198],"outdoor":[199],"ruins,":[200],"also":[201],"confirming":[202],"framework\u2019s":[204],"practicality.":[205]},"counts_by_year":[{"year":2025,"cited_by_count":1}],"updated_date":"2026-06-11T09:08:48.828518","created_date":"2025-11-28T00:00:00"}
