Jacobian Exploratory Dual-Phase Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Endoluminal Navigation of Deformable Continuum Robots

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Tian, Yu, Ng, Chi Kit, Ren, Hongliang
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Tian, Yu
Ng, Chi Kit
Ren, Hongliang
author_facet Tian, Yu
Ng, Chi Kit
Ren, Hongliang
contents Deformable continuum robots (DCRs) present unique planning challenges due to nonlinear deformation mechanics and partial state observability, violating the Markov assumptions of conventional reinforcement learning (RL) methods. While Jacobian-based approaches offer theoretical foundations for rigid manipulators, their direct application to DCRs remains limited by time-varying kinematics and underactuated deformation dynamics. This paper proposes Jacobian Exploratory Dual-Phase RL (JEDP-RL), a framework that decomposes planning into phased Jacobian estimation and policy execution. During each training step, we first perform small-scale local exploratory actions to estimate the deformation Jacobian matrix, then augment the state representation with Jacobian features to restore approximate Markovianity. Extensive SOFA surgical dynamic simulations demonstrate JEDP-RL's three key advantages over proximal policy optimization (PPO) baselines: 1) Convergence speed: 3.2x faster policy convergence, 2) Navigation efficiency: requires 25% fewer steps to reach the target, and 3) Generalization ability: achieve 92% success rate under material property variations and achieve 83% (33% higher than PPO) success rate in the unseen tissue environment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_00329
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Jacobian Exploratory Dual-Phase Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Endoluminal Navigation of Deformable Continuum Robots
Tian, Yu
Ng, Chi Kit
Ren, Hongliang
Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Systems and Control
Deformable continuum robots (DCRs) present unique planning challenges due to nonlinear deformation mechanics and partial state observability, violating the Markov assumptions of conventional reinforcement learning (RL) methods. While Jacobian-based approaches offer theoretical foundations for rigid manipulators, their direct application to DCRs remains limited by time-varying kinematics and underactuated deformation dynamics. This paper proposes Jacobian Exploratory Dual-Phase RL (JEDP-RL), a framework that decomposes planning into phased Jacobian estimation and policy execution. During each training step, we first perform small-scale local exploratory actions to estimate the deformation Jacobian matrix, then augment the state representation with Jacobian features to restore approximate Markovianity. Extensive SOFA surgical dynamic simulations demonstrate JEDP-RL's three key advantages over proximal policy optimization (PPO) baselines: 1) Convergence speed: 3.2x faster policy convergence, 2) Navigation efficiency: requires 25% fewer steps to reach the target, and 3) Generalization ability: achieve 92% success rate under material property variations and achieve 83% (33% higher than PPO) success rate in the unseen tissue environment.
title Jacobian Exploratory Dual-Phase Reinforcement Learning for Dynamic Endoluminal Navigation of Deformable Continuum Robots
topic Robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.00329