Safe Reinforcement Learning with a Predictive Safety Filter for Motion Planning and Control: A Drifting Vehicle Example

Fuente: arXiv
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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zhou, Bei, Zarrouki, Baha, Piccinini, Mattia, Hu, Cheng, Xie, Lei, Betz, Johannes
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Zhou, Bei
Zarrouki, Baha
Piccinini, Mattia
Hu, Cheng
Xie, Lei
Betz, Johannes
author_facet Zhou, Bei
Zarrouki, Baha
Piccinini, Mattia
Hu, Cheng
Xie, Lei
Betz, Johannes
contents Autonomous drifting is a complex and crucial maneuver for safety-critical scenarios like slippery roads and emergency collision avoidance, requiring precise motion planning and control. Traditional motion planning methods often struggle with the high instability and unpredictability of drifting, particularly when operating at high speeds. Recent learning-based approaches have attempted to tackle this issue but often rely on expert knowledge or have limited exploration capabilities. Additionally, they do not effectively address safety concerns during learning and deployment. To overcome these limitations, we propose a novel Safe Reinforcement Learning (RL)-based motion planner for autonomous drifting. Our approach integrates an RL agent with model-based drift dynamics to determine desired drift motion states, while incorporating a Predictive Safety Filter (PSF) that adjusts the agent's actions online to prevent unsafe states. This ensures safe and efficient learning, and stable drift operation. We validate the effectiveness of our method through simulations on a Matlab-Carsim platform, demonstrating significant improvements in drift performance, reduced tracking errors, and computational efficiency compared to traditional methods. This strategy promises to extend the capabilities of autonomous vehicles in safety-critical maneuvers.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_22894
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Safe Reinforcement Learning with a Predictive Safety Filter for Motion Planning and Control: A Drifting Vehicle Example
Zhou, Bei
Zarrouki, Baha
Piccinini, Mattia
Hu, Cheng
Xie, Lei
Betz, Johannes
Robotics
Autonomous drifting is a complex and crucial maneuver for safety-critical scenarios like slippery roads and emergency collision avoidance, requiring precise motion planning and control. Traditional motion planning methods often struggle with the high instability and unpredictability of drifting, particularly when operating at high speeds. Recent learning-based approaches have attempted to tackle this issue but often rely on expert knowledge or have limited exploration capabilities. Additionally, they do not effectively address safety concerns during learning and deployment. To overcome these limitations, we propose a novel Safe Reinforcement Learning (RL)-based motion planner for autonomous drifting. Our approach integrates an RL agent with model-based drift dynamics to determine desired drift motion states, while incorporating a Predictive Safety Filter (PSF) that adjusts the agent's actions online to prevent unsafe states. This ensures safe and efficient learning, and stable drift operation. We validate the effectiveness of our method through simulations on a Matlab-Carsim platform, demonstrating significant improvements in drift performance, reduced tracking errors, and computational efficiency compared to traditional methods. This strategy promises to extend the capabilities of autonomous vehicles in safety-critical maneuvers.
title Safe Reinforcement Learning with a Predictive Safety Filter for Motion Planning and Control: A Drifting Vehicle Example
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.22894