GeNIE: A Generalizable Navigation System for In-the-Wild Environments

TL;DR

GeNIE is a robust, generalizable navigation system for unstructured environments that outperforms previous methods, demonstrated by winning the Earth Rover Challenge with minimal human intervention.

Contribution

We introduce GeNIE, a novel navigation framework combining SAM2-based traversability prediction and a path fusion strategy for improved stability in diverse, noisy outdoor settings.

Findings

Achieved 79% of maximum score in ERC, outperforming competitors.

Completed the challenge without human intervention.

Set a new benchmark for outdoor robot navigation.

Abstract

Reliable navigation in unstructured, real-world environments remains a significant challenge for embodied agents, especially when operating across diverse terrains, weather conditions, and sensor configurations. In this paper, we introduce GeNIE (Generalizable Navigation System for In-the-Wild Environments), a robust navigation framework designed for global deployment. GeNIE integrates a generalizable traversability prediction model built on SAM2 with a novel path fusion strategy that enhances planning stability in noisy and ambiguous settings. We deployed GeNIE in the Earth Rover Challenge (ERC) at ICRA 2025, where it was evaluated across six countries spanning three continents. GeNIE took first place and achieved 79% of the maximum possible score, outperforming the second-best team by 17%, and completed the entire competition without a single human intervention. These results set a new benchmark for robust, generalizable outdoor robot navigation. We will release the codebase, pretrained model weights, and newly curated datasets to support future research in real-world navigation.