Boosting Reinforcement Learning Algorithms in Continuous Robotic Reaching Tasks using Adaptive Potential Functions

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Chen, Yifei, Schomaker, Lambert, Cruz, Francisco
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Chen, Yifei
Schomaker, Lambert
Cruz, Francisco
author_facet Chen, Yifei
Schomaker, Lambert
Cruz, Francisco
contents In reinforcement learning, reward shaping is an efficient way to guide the learning process of an agent, as the reward can indicate the optimal policy of the task. The potential-based reward shaping framework was proposed to guarantee policy invariance after reward shaping, where a potential function is used to calculate the shaping reward. In former work, we proposed a novel adaptive potential function (APF) method to learn the potential function concurrently with training the agent based on information collected by the agent during the training process, and examined the APF method in discrete action space scenarios. This paper investigates the feasibility of using APF in solving continuous-reaching tasks in a real-world robotic scenario with continuous action space. We combine the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm and our proposed method to form a new algorithm called APF-DDPG. To compare APF-DDPG with DDPG, we designed a task where the agent learns to control Baxter's right arm to reach a goal position. The experimental results show that the APF-DDPG algorithm outperforms the DDPG algorithm on both learning speed and robustness.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_04581
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Boosting Reinforcement Learning Algorithms in Continuous Robotic Reaching Tasks using Adaptive Potential Functions
Chen, Yifei
Schomaker, Lambert
Cruz, Francisco
Robotics
In reinforcement learning, reward shaping is an efficient way to guide the learning process of an agent, as the reward can indicate the optimal policy of the task. The potential-based reward shaping framework was proposed to guarantee policy invariance after reward shaping, where a potential function is used to calculate the shaping reward. In former work, we proposed a novel adaptive potential function (APF) method to learn the potential function concurrently with training the agent based on information collected by the agent during the training process, and examined the APF method in discrete action space scenarios. This paper investigates the feasibility of using APF in solving continuous-reaching tasks in a real-world robotic scenario with continuous action space. We combine the Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm and our proposed method to form a new algorithm called APF-DDPG. To compare APF-DDPG with DDPG, we designed a task where the agent learns to control Baxter's right arm to reach a goal position. The experimental results show that the APF-DDPG algorithm outperforms the DDPG algorithm on both learning speed and robustness.
title Boosting Reinforcement Learning Algorithms in Continuous Robotic Reaching Tasks using Adaptive Potential Functions
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.04581