Multi-source Plume Tracing via Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Granadeno, Pedro Antonio Alarcon, Chambers, Theodore, Cleland-Huang, Jane
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Granadeno, Pedro Antonio Alarcon
Chambers, Theodore
Cleland-Huang, Jane
author_facet Granadeno, Pedro Antonio Alarcon
Chambers, Theodore
Cleland-Huang, Jane
contents Industrial catastrophes like the Bhopal disaster (1984) and the Aliso Canyon gas leak (2015) demonstrate the urgent need for rapid and reliable plume tracing algorithms to protect public health and the environment. Traditional methods, such as gradient-based or biologically inspired approaches, often fail in realistic, turbulent conditions. To address these challenges, we present a Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) algorithm designed for localizing multiple airborne pollution sources using a swarm of small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS). Our method models the problem as a Partially Observable Markov Game (POMG), employing a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)-based Action-specific Double Deep Recurrent Q-Network (ADDRQN) that uses full sequences of historical action-observation pairs, effectively approximating latent states. Unlike prior work, we use a general-purpose simulation environment based on the Gaussian Plume Model (GPM), incorporating realistic elements such as a three-dimensional environment, sensor noise, multiple interacting agents, and multiple plume sources. The incorporation of action histories as part of the inputs further enhances the adaptability of our model in complex, partially observable environments. Extensive simulations show that our algorithm significantly outperforms conventional approaches. Specifically, our model allows agents to explore only 1.29\% of the environment to successfully locate pollution sources.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_08825
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Multi-source Plume Tracing via Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
Granadeno, Pedro Antonio Alarcon
Chambers, Theodore
Cleland-Huang, Jane
Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
Industrial catastrophes like the Bhopal disaster (1984) and the Aliso Canyon gas leak (2015) demonstrate the urgent need for rapid and reliable plume tracing algorithms to protect public health and the environment. Traditional methods, such as gradient-based or biologically inspired approaches, often fail in realistic, turbulent conditions. To address these challenges, we present a Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning (MARL) algorithm designed for localizing multiple airborne pollution sources using a swarm of small uncrewed aerial systems (sUAS). Our method models the problem as a Partially Observable Markov Game (POMG), employing a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)-based Action-specific Double Deep Recurrent Q-Network (ADDRQN) that uses full sequences of historical action-observation pairs, effectively approximating latent states. Unlike prior work, we use a general-purpose simulation environment based on the Gaussian Plume Model (GPM), incorporating realistic elements such as a three-dimensional environment, sensor noise, multiple interacting agents, and multiple plume sources. The incorporation of action histories as part of the inputs further enhances the adaptability of our model in complex, partially observable environments. Extensive simulations show that our algorithm significantly outperforms conventional approaches. Specifically, our model allows agents to explore only 1.29\% of the environment to successfully locate pollution sources.
title Multi-source Plume Tracing via Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning
topic Multiagent Systems
Artificial Intelligence
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.08825