PTRL: Prior Transfer Deep Reinforcement Learning for Legged Robots Locomotion

Fuente: arXiv
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Auteurs principaux: Huang, Haodong, Sun, Shilong, Zhao, Zida, Huang, Hailin, Shen, Changqing, Xu, Wenfu
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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author Huang, Haodong
Sun, Shilong
Zhao, Zida
Huang, Hailin
Shen, Changqing
Xu, Wenfu
author_facet Huang, Haodong
Sun, Shilong
Zhao, Zida
Huang, Hailin
Shen, Changqing
Xu, Wenfu
contents In the field of legged robot motion control, reinforcement learning (RL) holds great promise but faces two major challenges: high computational cost for training individual robots and poor generalization of trained models. To address these problems, this paper proposes a novel framework called Prior Transfer Reinforcement Learning (PTRL), which improves both training efficiency and model transferability across different robots. Drawing inspiration from model transfer techniques in deep learning, PTRL introduces a fine-tuning mechanism that selectively freezes layers of the policy network during transfer, making it the first to apply such a method in RL. The framework consists of three stages: pre-training on a source robot using the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm, transferring the learned policy to a target robot, and fine-tuning with partial network freezing. Extensive experiments on various robot platforms confirm that this approach significantly reduces training time while maintaining or even improving performance. Moreover, the study quantitatively analyzes how the ratio of frozen layers affects transfer results, providing valuable insights into optimizing the process. The experimental outcomes show that PTRL achieves better walking control performance and demonstrates strong generalization and adaptability, offering a promising solution for efficient and scalable RL-based control of legged robots.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_05629
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle PTRL: Prior Transfer Deep Reinforcement Learning for Legged Robots Locomotion
Huang, Haodong
Sun, Shilong
Zhao, Zida
Huang, Hailin
Shen, Changqing
Xu, Wenfu
Robotics
In the field of legged robot motion control, reinforcement learning (RL) holds great promise but faces two major challenges: high computational cost for training individual robots and poor generalization of trained models. To address these problems, this paper proposes a novel framework called Prior Transfer Reinforcement Learning (PTRL), which improves both training efficiency and model transferability across different robots. Drawing inspiration from model transfer techniques in deep learning, PTRL introduces a fine-tuning mechanism that selectively freezes layers of the policy network during transfer, making it the first to apply such a method in RL. The framework consists of three stages: pre-training on a source robot using the Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm, transferring the learned policy to a target robot, and fine-tuning with partial network freezing. Extensive experiments on various robot platforms confirm that this approach significantly reduces training time while maintaining or even improving performance. Moreover, the study quantitatively analyzes how the ratio of frozen layers affects transfer results, providing valuable insights into optimizing the process. The experimental outcomes show that PTRL achieves better walking control performance and demonstrates strong generalization and adaptability, offering a promising solution for efficient and scalable RL-based control of legged robots.
title PTRL: Prior Transfer Deep Reinforcement Learning for Legged Robots Locomotion
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.05629