Abstract
Navigation in vision-denied environments is challenging for humanoid robots because proprioceptive odometry drifts and localization uncertainty accumulates rapidly. We present TAPNAV, a tactile active-perception framework that enables humanoid navigation toward a goal by actively probing surrounding structures without relying on vision. TAPNAV maintains a pose belief from odometry, IMU, and tactile contact observations, and couples uncertainty-aware global route planning with information-gain-driven local probing. The global planner searches for routes that keep predicted localization uncertainty bounded by exploiting opportunities for tactile correction, while the local planner selects probe actions that maximize expected information gain. A whole-body controller coordinates the humanoid's locomotion and end-effector contact to execute the planned navigation and probe motions. We evaluate TAPNAV in simulation and on a Unitree G1 across different floor plans and obstacle geometries. TAPNAV achieves lower state estimation error and a higher task completion rate than baselines. These results demonstrate that actively planning physical interactions with the environment can provide localization cues for reliable humanoid navigation without vision.
Keywords
Subject
Publication details
- Journal
- Not available
- Open access
- Green open access
Cite this article
APA 7
Liu, H., Wu, Z., Jang, J., Sheng, J., Collins, A., Xie, A., Gu, Z., Zhu, K., Jiang, D., Cai, K., & Zhao, Y. (2026). TAPNAV: Humanoid Navigation through Tactile Active Perception. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tapnav-humanoid-navigation-through-tactile-active-perception
MLA 9
Liu, Huaze, et al. "TAPNAV: Humanoid Navigation through Tactile Active Perception." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tapnav-humanoid-navigation-through-tactile-active-perception.
Chicago (author–date)
Liu, Huaze, Zhenyu Wu, Jaehwi Jang, Junjie Sheng, Andrew Collins, Aaron Xie, Zhaoyuan Gu, Kaijie Zhu, Ding Jiang, Kevin Cai, and Ye Zhao. 2026. "TAPNAV: Humanoid Navigation through Tactile Active Perception." https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tapnav-humanoid-navigation-through-tactile-active-perception.
Harvard
Liu, H., Wu, Z., Jang, J., Sheng, J., Collins, A., Xie, A., Gu, Z., Zhu, K., Jiang, D., Cai, K. and Zhao, Y. (2026) 'TAPNAV: Humanoid Navigation through Tactile Active Perception', Available at: https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tapnav-humanoid-navigation-through-tactile-active-perception.
Vancouver
Liu H, Wu Z, Jang J, Sheng J, Collins A, Xie A, et al. TAPNAV: Humanoid Navigation through Tactile Active Perception. https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tapnav-humanoid-navigation-through-tactile-active-perception
IEEE
H. Liu, Z. Wu, J. Jang, J. Sheng, A. Collins, A. Xie, Z. Gu, K. Zhu, D. Jiang, K. Cai, and Y. Zhao, "TAPNAV: Humanoid Navigation through Tactile Active Perception," https://omanscience.com/en/articles/tapnav-humanoid-navigation-through-tactile-active-perception.