Gray-Box Computed Torque Control for Differential-Drive Mobile Robot Tracking

Fuente: arXiv
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Autore principale: Pishkhani, Arman Javan Sekhavat
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Pishkhani, Arman Javan Sekhavat
author_facet Pishkhani, Arman Javan Sekhavat
contents This study presents a learning-based nonlinear algorithm for tracking control of differential-drive mobile robots. The Computed Torque Method (CTM) suffers from inaccurate knowledge of system parameters, while Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithms are known for sample inefficiency and weak stability guarantees. The proposed method replaces the black-box policy network of a DRL agent with a gray-box Computed Torque Controller (CTC) to improve sample efficiency and ensure closed-loop stability. This approach enables finding an optimal set of controller parameters for an arbitrary reward function using only a few short learning episodes. The Twin-Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) algorithm is used for this purpose. Additionally, some controller parameters are constrained to lie within known value ranges, ensuring the RL agent learns physically plausible values. A technique is also applied to enforce a critically damped closed-loop time response. The controller's performance is evaluated on a differential-drive mobile robot simulated in the MuJoCo physics engine and compared against the raw CTC and a conventional kinematic controller.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_00571
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Gray-Box Computed Torque Control for Differential-Drive Mobile Robot Tracking
Pishkhani, Arman Javan Sekhavat
Robotics
Systems and Control
This study presents a learning-based nonlinear algorithm for tracking control of differential-drive mobile robots. The Computed Torque Method (CTM) suffers from inaccurate knowledge of system parameters, while Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) algorithms are known for sample inefficiency and weak stability guarantees. The proposed method replaces the black-box policy network of a DRL agent with a gray-box Computed Torque Controller (CTC) to improve sample efficiency and ensure closed-loop stability. This approach enables finding an optimal set of controller parameters for an arbitrary reward function using only a few short learning episodes. The Twin-Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) algorithm is used for this purpose. Additionally, some controller parameters are constrained to lie within known value ranges, ensuring the RL agent learns physically plausible values. A technique is also applied to enforce a critically damped closed-loop time response. The controller's performance is evaluated on a differential-drive mobile robot simulated in the MuJoCo physics engine and compared against the raw CTC and a conventional kinematic controller.
title Gray-Box Computed Torque Control for Differential-Drive Mobile Robot Tracking
topic Robotics
Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.00571