Neural-Network-Driven Reward Prediction as a Heuristic: Advancing Q-Learning for Mobile Robot Path Planning

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Ji, Yiming, Yun, Kaijie, Liu, Yang, Xie, Zongwu, Liu, Hong
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Ji, Yiming
Yun, Kaijie
Liu, Yang
Xie, Zongwu
Liu, Hong
author_facet Ji, Yiming
Yun, Kaijie
Liu, Yang
Xie, Zongwu
Liu, Hong
contents Q-learning is a widely used reinforcement learning technique for solving path planning problems. It primarily involves the interaction between an agent and its environment, enabling the agent to learn an optimal strategy that maximizes cumulative rewards. Although many studies have reported the effectiveness of Q-learning, it still faces slow convergence issues in practical applications. To address this issue, we propose the NDR-QL method, which utilizes neural network outputs as heuristic information to accelerate the convergence process of Q-learning. Specifically, we improved the dual-output neural network model by introducing a start-end channel separation mechanism and enhancing the feature fusion process. After training, the proposed NDR model can output a narrowly focused optimal probability distribution, referred to as the guideline, and a broadly distributed suboptimal distribution, referred to as the region. Subsequently, based on the guideline prediction, we calculate the continuous reward function for the Q-learning method, and based on the region prediction, we initialize the Q-table with a bias. We conducted training, validation, and path planning simulation experiments on public datasets. The results indicate that the NDR model outperforms previous methods by up to 5\% in prediction accuracy. Furthermore, the proposed NDR-QL method improves the convergence speed of the baseline Q-learning method by 90\% and also surpasses the previously improved Q-learning methods in path quality metrics.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_12650
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Neural-Network-Driven Reward Prediction as a Heuristic: Advancing Q-Learning for Mobile Robot Path Planning
Ji, Yiming
Yun, Kaijie
Liu, Yang
Xie, Zongwu
Liu, Hong
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
Q-learning is a widely used reinforcement learning technique for solving path planning problems. It primarily involves the interaction between an agent and its environment, enabling the agent to learn an optimal strategy that maximizes cumulative rewards. Although many studies have reported the effectiveness of Q-learning, it still faces slow convergence issues in practical applications. To address this issue, we propose the NDR-QL method, which utilizes neural network outputs as heuristic information to accelerate the convergence process of Q-learning. Specifically, we improved the dual-output neural network model by introducing a start-end channel separation mechanism and enhancing the feature fusion process. After training, the proposed NDR model can output a narrowly focused optimal probability distribution, referred to as the guideline, and a broadly distributed suboptimal distribution, referred to as the region. Subsequently, based on the guideline prediction, we calculate the continuous reward function for the Q-learning method, and based on the region prediction, we initialize the Q-table with a bias. We conducted training, validation, and path planning simulation experiments on public datasets. The results indicate that the NDR model outperforms previous methods by up to 5\% in prediction accuracy. Furthermore, the proposed NDR-QL method improves the convergence speed of the baseline Q-learning method by 90\% and also surpasses the previously improved Q-learning methods in path quality metrics.
title Neural-Network-Driven Reward Prediction as a Heuristic: Advancing Q-Learning for Mobile Robot Path Planning
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.12650