{"ID":2823231,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00609","arxiv_id":"2601.00609","title":"NMPC-Augmented Visual Navigation and Safe Learning Control for Large-Scale Mobile Robots","abstract":"A large-scale mobile robot (LSMR) is a high-order multibody system that often operates on loose, unconsolidated terrain, which reduces traction. This paper presents a comprehensive navigation and control framework for an LSMR that ensures stability and safety-defined performance, delivering robust operation on slip-prone terrain by jointly leveraging high-performance techniques. The proposed architecture comprises four main modules: (1) a visual pose-estimation module that fuses onboard sensors and stereo cameras to provide an accurate, low-latency robot pose, (2) a high-level nonlinear model predictive control that updates the wheel motion commands to correct robot drift from the robot reference pose on slip-prone terrain, (3) a low-level deep neural network control policy that approximates the complex behavior of the wheel-driven actuation mechanism in LSMRs, augmented with robust adaptive control to handle out-of-distribution disturbances, ensuring that the wheels accurately track the updated commands issued by high-level control module, and (4) a logarithmic safety module to monitor the entire robot stack and guarantees safe operation. The proposed low-level control framework guarantees uniform exponential stability of the actuation subsystem, while the safety module ensures the whole system-level safety during operation. Comparative experiments on a 6,000 kg LSMR actuated by two complex electro-hydrostatic drives, while synchronizing modules operating at different frequencies.","short_abstract":"A large-scale mobile robot (LSMR) is a high-order multibody system that often operates on loose, unconsolidated terrain, which reduces traction. This paper presents a comprehensive navigation and control framework for an LSMR that ensures stability and safety-defined performance, delivering robust operation on slip-pro...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.00609","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2601.00609v1","authors":"[\"Mehdi Heydari Shahna\",\"Pauli Mustalahti\",\"Jouni Mattila\"]","published":"2026-01-02T08:40:35Z","proceeding":"cs.RO","tasks":"[\"cs.RO\",\"eess.SY\"]","methods":"[]","has_code":false}