AirPilot: Interpretable PPO-based DRL Auto-Tuned Nonlinear PID Drone Controller for Robust Autonomous Flights

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Zhang, Junyang, Rivera, Cristian Emanuel Ocampo, Tyni, Kyle, Nguyen, Steven
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Zhang, Junyang
Rivera, Cristian Emanuel Ocampo
Tyni, Kyle
Nguyen, Steven
author_facet Zhang, Junyang
Rivera, Cristian Emanuel Ocampo
Tyni, Kyle
Nguyen, Steven
contents Navigation precision, speed and stability are crucial for safe Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flight maneuvers and effective flight mission executions in dynamic environments. Different flight missions may have varying objectives, such as minimizing energy consumption, achieving precise positioning, or maximizing speed. A controller that can adapt to different objectives on the fly is highly valuable. Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers are one of the most popular and widely used control algorithms for drones and other control systems, but their linear control algorithm fails to capture the nonlinear nature of the dynamic wind conditions and complex drone system. Manually tuning the PID gains for various missions can be time-consuming and requires significant expertise. This paper aims to revolutionize drone flight control by presenting the AirPilot, a nonlinear Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) - enhanced Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) drone controller using Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). AirPilot controller combines the simplicity and effectiveness of traditional PID control with the adaptability, learning capability, and optimization potential of DRL. This makes it better suited for modern drone applications where the environment is dynamic, and mission-specific performance demands are high. We employed a COEX Clover autonomous drone for training the DRL agent within the simulator and implemented it in a real-world lab setting, which marks a significant milestone as one of the first attempts to apply a DRL-based flight controller on an actual drone. Airpilot is capable of reducing the navigation error of the default PX4 PID position controller by 90%, improving effective navigation speed of a fine-tuned PID controller by 21%, reducing settling time and overshoot by 17% and 16% respectively.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_00204
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle AirPilot: Interpretable PPO-based DRL Auto-Tuned Nonlinear PID Drone Controller for Robust Autonomous Flights
Zhang, Junyang
Rivera, Cristian Emanuel Ocampo
Tyni, Kyle
Nguyen, Steven
Robotics
Machine Learning
Systems and Control
Navigation precision, speed and stability are crucial for safe Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) flight maneuvers and effective flight mission executions in dynamic environments. Different flight missions may have varying objectives, such as minimizing energy consumption, achieving precise positioning, or maximizing speed. A controller that can adapt to different objectives on the fly is highly valuable. Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) controllers are one of the most popular and widely used control algorithms for drones and other control systems, but their linear control algorithm fails to capture the nonlinear nature of the dynamic wind conditions and complex drone system. Manually tuning the PID gains for various missions can be time-consuming and requires significant expertise. This paper aims to revolutionize drone flight control by presenting the AirPilot, a nonlinear Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) - enhanced Proportional Integral Derivative (PID) drone controller using Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO). AirPilot controller combines the simplicity and effectiveness of traditional PID control with the adaptability, learning capability, and optimization potential of DRL. This makes it better suited for modern drone applications where the environment is dynamic, and mission-specific performance demands are high. We employed a COEX Clover autonomous drone for training the DRL agent within the simulator and implemented it in a real-world lab setting, which marks a significant milestone as one of the first attempts to apply a DRL-based flight controller on an actual drone. Airpilot is capable of reducing the navigation error of the default PX4 PID position controller by 90%, improving effective navigation speed of a fine-tuned PID controller by 21%, reducing settling time and overshoot by 17% and 16% respectively.
title AirPilot: Interpretable PPO-based DRL Auto-Tuned Nonlinear PID Drone Controller for Robust Autonomous Flights
topic Robotics
Machine Learning
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.00204