MUSE: A Real-Time Multi-Sensor State Estimator for Quadruped Robots

Abstract: This paper introduces an innovative state estimator, MUSE (MUlti-sensor State Estimator), designed to enhance state estimation's accuracy and real-time performance in quadruped robot navigation. The proposed state estimator builds upon our previous work presented in [1]. It integrates data from a range of onboard sensors, including IMUs, encoders, cameras, and LiDARs, to deliver a comprehensive and reliable estimation of the robot's pose and motion, even in slippery scenarios. We tested MUSE on a Unitree Aliengo robot, successfully closing the locomotion control loop in difficult scenarios, including slippery and uneven terrain. Benchmarking against Pronto [2] and VILENS [3] showed 67.6% and 26.7% reductions in translational errors, respectively. Additionally, MUSE outperformed DLIO [4], a LiDAR-inertial odometry system in rotational errors and frequency, while the proprioceptive version of MUSE (P-MUSE) outperformed TSIF [5], with a 45.9% reduction in absolute trajectory error (ATE).