Autonomy requires a good mobile platform, perception technologies, navigation technologies, etc. Quadruped robots were never tested in a realistic common challenging environment in an autonomous way before ICRA 2023. Quadruped robots are inherently dynamic; thus, their competition is interesting to the audience and public and may draw the attention of potential sponsors.
Quadruped Robot Challenges (QRC) was inaugurated in ICRA 2023 to test teams for autonomous traversability on various kinds of terrains. At Stage 1, each robot runs the test field alone, solo start. Due to the short notice of the game, many teams used remote control. Only two teams challenged in autonomy. In Stage 1+ which is about the mobility with inspection test at ICRA 2024 and IROS 2024, we witnessed more teams use autonomy and an exploration mission is still difficult for autonomous robots.
As a next step, ICRA 2025 QRC will move to Stage 2 where the multiple robot collaboration concept will be introduced. Teams may need to deal with more advanced tasks, dynamic obstacles, real-time perception, and planning in this stage.
