HCLM: A Hierarchical Framework for Cooperative Loco-Manipulation with Dual Quadrupeds

TL;DR

HCLM is a hierarchical framework enabling robust, cooperative loco-manipulation with dual quadrupeds, combining high-level spatial reasoning with low-level reactive control for real-world applications.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel hierarchical architecture that decouples high-level coordination from low-level motion control for dual quadruped systems.

Findings

Successful real-world deployment of cooperative tasks

High resilience against physical perturbations

Reliable task execution across complex scenarios

Abstract

We introduce HCLM, a hierarchical framework for general-purpose cooperative loco-manipulation with dual quadrupedal systems. Coordinating multi-robot collaborative manipulation across floating bases is highly challenging due to the conflicting demands of spatial coordination, robust locomotion, and closed-chain physical interactions. To resolve this, our architecture systematically decouples high-level collaborative reasoning from low-level robust motion execution. At the high level, a centralized Joint Diffusion Policy leverages an SE(3)-invariant task-space representation to learn coordinate-agnostic spatial coordination patterns. To translate these frame-agnostic references into physical motion, a task-centric hybrid Whole-Body Controller synergizes a proactive kinematic Model Predictive Control for collision-free velocity distribution with a reactive execution layer. Crucially, this reactive layer guarantees rapid responsiveness for precise end-effector tracking, while concurrently integrating active force regulation via a cooperative admittance scheme to safely resolve kinematic conflicts and strictly regulate internal stresses during closed-chain interactions. We validate the framework across progressively challenging simulated scenarios, including cooperative carrying, packing and handovers, and successfully deploy the latter in the real world. The results demonstrate reliable task execution, strict configuration agnosticism, and exceptional resilience against severe physical perturbations, offering a highly robust pathway for multi-robot embodied coordination.