Verti-Arena: A Controllable and Standardized Indoor Testbed for Multi-Terrain Off-Road Autonomy

TL;DR

Verti-Arena is a reconfigurable indoor testbed designed to facilitate standardized, reproducible experiments in off-road robot navigation across challenging terrains, supporting global research collaboration.

Contribution

This paper introduces Verti-Arena, a novel controllable indoor environment for systematic testing and benchmarking of off-road autonomous navigation algorithms.

Findings

Supports reproducible experiments with precise ground truth data

Enables remote access for global research collaboration

Provides a variety of challenging terrains for comprehensive testing

Abstract

Off-road navigation is an important capability for mobile robots deployed in environments that are inaccessible or dangerous to humans, such as disaster response or planetary exploration. Progress is limited due to the lack of a controllable and standardized real-world testbed for systematic data collection and validation. To fill this gap, we introduce Verti-Arena, a reconfigurable indoor facility designed specifically for off-road autonomy. By providing a repeatable benchmark environment, Verti-Arena supports reproducible experiments across a variety of vertically challenging terrains and provides precise ground truth measurements through onboard sensors and a motion capture system. Verti-Arena also supports consistent data collection and comparative evaluation of algorithms in off-road autonomy research. We also develop a web-based interface that enables research groups worldwide to remotely conduct standardized off-road autonomy experiments on Verti-Arena.