Beyond Visibility Limits: A DRL-Based Navigation Strategy for Unexpected Obstacles

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Tan, Mingao, Wang, Shanze, Huang, Biao, Yang, Zhibo, Chen, Rongfei, Shen, Xiaoyu, Zhang, Wei
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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_version_ 1866916639459508224
author Tan, Mingao
Wang, Shanze
Huang, Biao
Yang, Zhibo
Chen, Rongfei
Shen, Xiaoyu
Zhang, Wei
author_facet Tan, Mingao
Wang, Shanze
Huang, Biao
Yang, Zhibo
Chen, Rongfei
Shen, Xiaoyu
Zhang, Wei
contents Distance-based reward mechanisms in deep reinforcement learning (DRL) navigation systems suffer from critical safety limitations in dynamic environments, frequently resulting in collisions when visibility is restricted. We propose DRL-NSUO, a novel navigation strategy for unexpected obstacles that leverages the rate of change in LiDAR data as a dynamic environmental perception element. Our approach incorporates a composite reward function with environmental change rate constraints and dynamically adjusted weights through curriculum learning, enabling robots to autonomously balance between path efficiency and safety maximization. We enhance sensitivity to nearby obstacles by implementing short-range feature preprocessing of LiDAR data. Experimental results demonstrate that this method significantly improves both robot and pedestrian safety in complex scenarios compared to traditional DRL-based methods. When evaluated on the BARN navigation dataset, our method achieved superior performance with success rates of 94.0% at 0.5 m/s and 91.0% at 1.0 m/s, outperforming conservative obstacle expansion strategies. These results validate DRL-NSUO's enhanced practicality and safety for human-robot collaborative environments, including intelligent logistics applications.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2503_01127
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Beyond Visibility Limits: A DRL-Based Navigation Strategy for Unexpected Obstacles
Tan, Mingao
Wang, Shanze
Huang, Biao
Yang, Zhibo
Chen, Rongfei
Shen, Xiaoyu
Zhang, Wei
Robotics
Distance-based reward mechanisms in deep reinforcement learning (DRL) navigation systems suffer from critical safety limitations in dynamic environments, frequently resulting in collisions when visibility is restricted. We propose DRL-NSUO, a novel navigation strategy for unexpected obstacles that leverages the rate of change in LiDAR data as a dynamic environmental perception element. Our approach incorporates a composite reward function with environmental change rate constraints and dynamically adjusted weights through curriculum learning, enabling robots to autonomously balance between path efficiency and safety maximization. We enhance sensitivity to nearby obstacles by implementing short-range feature preprocessing of LiDAR data. Experimental results demonstrate that this method significantly improves both robot and pedestrian safety in complex scenarios compared to traditional DRL-based methods. When evaluated on the BARN navigation dataset, our method achieved superior performance with success rates of 94.0% at 0.5 m/s and 91.0% at 1.0 m/s, outperforming conservative obstacle expansion strategies. These results validate DRL-NSUO's enhanced practicality and safety for human-robot collaborative environments, including intelligent logistics applications.
title Beyond Visibility Limits: A DRL-Based Navigation Strategy for Unexpected Obstacles
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.01127