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Main Authors: Zhang, Xinglong, Pan, Wei, Li, Cong, Xu, Xin, Wang, Xiangke, Zhang, Ronghua, Hu, Dewen
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.19669
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author Zhang, Xinglong
Pan, Wei
Li, Cong
Xu, Xin
Wang, Xiangke
Zhang, Ronghua
Hu, Dewen
author_facet Zhang, Xinglong
Pan, Wei
Li, Cong
Xu, Xin
Wang, Xiangke
Zhang, Ronghua
Hu, Dewen
contents Distributed model predictive control (DMPC) is promising in achieving optimal cooperative control in multirobot systems (MRS). However, real-time DMPC implementation relies on numerical optimization tools to periodically calculate local control sequences online. This process is computationally demanding and lacks scalability for large-scale, nonlinear MRS. This article proposes a novel distributed learning-based predictive control (DLPC) framework for scalable multirobot control. Unlike conventional DMPC methods that calculate open-loop control sequences, our approach centers around a computationally fast and efficient distributed policy learning algorithm that generates explicit closed-loop DMPC policies for MRS without using numerical solvers. The policy learning is executed incrementally and forward in time in each prediction interval through an online distributed actor-critic implementation. The control policies are successively updated in a receding-horizon manner, enabling fast and efficient policy learning with the closed-loop stability guarantee. The learned control policies could be deployed online to MRS with varying robot scales, enhancing scalability and transferability for large-scale MRS. Furthermore, we extend our methodology to address the multirobot safe learning challenge through a force field-inspired policy learning approach. We validate our approach's effectiveness, scalability, and efficiency through extensive experiments on cooperative tasks of large-scale wheeled robots and multirotor drones. Our results demonstrate the rapid learning and deployment of DMPC policies for MRS with scales up to 10,000 units.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_19669
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Toward Scalable Multirobot Control: Fast Policy Learning in Distributed MPC
Zhang, Xinglong
Pan, Wei
Li, Cong
Xu, Xin
Wang, Xiangke
Zhang, Ronghua
Hu, Dewen
Robotics
Machine Learning
Distributed model predictive control (DMPC) is promising in achieving optimal cooperative control in multirobot systems (MRS). However, real-time DMPC implementation relies on numerical optimization tools to periodically calculate local control sequences online. This process is computationally demanding and lacks scalability for large-scale, nonlinear MRS. This article proposes a novel distributed learning-based predictive control (DLPC) framework for scalable multirobot control. Unlike conventional DMPC methods that calculate open-loop control sequences, our approach centers around a computationally fast and efficient distributed policy learning algorithm that generates explicit closed-loop DMPC policies for MRS without using numerical solvers. The policy learning is executed incrementally and forward in time in each prediction interval through an online distributed actor-critic implementation. The control policies are successively updated in a receding-horizon manner, enabling fast and efficient policy learning with the closed-loop stability guarantee. The learned control policies could be deployed online to MRS with varying robot scales, enhancing scalability and transferability for large-scale MRS. Furthermore, we extend our methodology to address the multirobot safe learning challenge through a force field-inspired policy learning approach. We validate our approach's effectiveness, scalability, and efficiency through extensive experiments on cooperative tasks of large-scale wheeled robots and multirotor drones. Our results demonstrate the rapid learning and deployment of DMPC policies for MRS with scales up to 10,000 units.
title Toward Scalable Multirobot Control: Fast Policy Learning in Distributed MPC
topic Robotics
Machine Learning
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.19669