Solving Multi-Entity Robotic Problems Using Permutation Invariant Neural Networks

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: An, Tianxu, Lee, Joonho, Bjelonic, Marko, De Vincenti, Flavio, Hutter, Marco
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author An, Tianxu
Lee, Joonho
Bjelonic, Marko
De Vincenti, Flavio
Hutter, Marco
author_facet An, Tianxu
Lee, Joonho
Bjelonic, Marko
De Vincenti, Flavio
Hutter, Marco
contents Challenges in real-world robotic applications often stem from managing multiple, dynamically varying entities such as neighboring robots, manipulable objects, and navigation goals. Existing multi-agent control strategies face scalability limitations, struggling to handle arbitrary numbers of entities. Additionally, they often rely on engineered heuristics for assigning entities among agents. We propose a data driven approach to address these limitations by introducing a decentralized control system using neural network policies trained in simulation. Leveraging permutation invariant neural network architectures and model-free reinforcement learning, our approach allows control agents to autonomously determine the relative importance of different entities without being biased by ordering or limited by a fixed capacity. We validate our approach through both simulations and real-world experiments involving multiple wheeled-legged quadrupedal robots, demonstrating their collaborative control capabilities. We prove the effectiveness of our architectural choice through experiments with three exemplary multi-entity problems. Our analysis underscores the pivotal role of the end-to-end trained permutation invariant encoders in achieving scalability and improving the task performance in multi-object manipulation or multi-goal navigation problems. The adaptability of our policy is further evidenced by its ability to manage varying numbers of entities in a zero-shot manner, showcasing near-optimal autonomous task distribution and collision avoidance behaviors.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_18345
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Solving Multi-Entity Robotic Problems Using Permutation Invariant Neural Networks
An, Tianxu
Lee, Joonho
Bjelonic, Marko
De Vincenti, Flavio
Hutter, Marco
Robotics
Challenges in real-world robotic applications often stem from managing multiple, dynamically varying entities such as neighboring robots, manipulable objects, and navigation goals. Existing multi-agent control strategies face scalability limitations, struggling to handle arbitrary numbers of entities. Additionally, they often rely on engineered heuristics for assigning entities among agents. We propose a data driven approach to address these limitations by introducing a decentralized control system using neural network policies trained in simulation. Leveraging permutation invariant neural network architectures and model-free reinforcement learning, our approach allows control agents to autonomously determine the relative importance of different entities without being biased by ordering or limited by a fixed capacity. We validate our approach through both simulations and real-world experiments involving multiple wheeled-legged quadrupedal robots, demonstrating their collaborative control capabilities. We prove the effectiveness of our architectural choice through experiments with three exemplary multi-entity problems. Our analysis underscores the pivotal role of the end-to-end trained permutation invariant encoders in achieving scalability and improving the task performance in multi-object manipulation or multi-goal navigation problems. The adaptability of our policy is further evidenced by its ability to manage varying numbers of entities in a zero-shot manner, showcasing near-optimal autonomous task distribution and collision avoidance behaviors.
title Solving Multi-Entity Robotic Problems Using Permutation Invariant Neural Networks
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.18345