Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Fischer, Johannes, Steiner, Marlon, Tas, Ömer Sahin, Stiller, Christoph
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.03774
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866908691116064768
author Fischer, Johannes
Steiner, Marlon
Tas, Ömer Sahin
Stiller, Christoph
author_facet Fischer, Johannes
Steiner, Marlon
Tas, Ömer Sahin
Stiller, Christoph
contents Model predictive control (MPC) is widely used for motion planning, particularly in autonomous driving. Real-time capability of the planner requires utilizing convex approximation of optimal control problems (OCPs) for the planner. However, such approximations confine the solution to a subspace, which might not contain the global optimum. To address this, we propose using safe reinforcement learning (SRL) to obtain a new and safe reference trajectory within MPC. By employing a learning-based approach, the MPC can explore solutions beyond the close neighborhood of the previous one, potentially finding global optima. We incorporate constrained reinforcement learning (CRL) to ensure safety in automated driving, using a handcrafted energy function-based safety index as the constraint objective to model safe and unsafe regions. Our approach utilizes a state-dependent Lagrangian multiplier, learned concurrently with the safe policy, to solve the CRL problem. Through experimentation in a highway scenario, we demonstrate the superiority of our approach over both MPC and SRL in terms of safety and performance measures.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2512_03774
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Safety Reinforced Model Predictive Control (SRMPC): Improving MPC with Reinforcement Learning for Motion Planning in Autonomous Driving
Fischer, Johannes
Steiner, Marlon
Tas, Ömer Sahin
Stiller, Christoph
Robotics
Model predictive control (MPC) is widely used for motion planning, particularly in autonomous driving. Real-time capability of the planner requires utilizing convex approximation of optimal control problems (OCPs) for the planner. However, such approximations confine the solution to a subspace, which might not contain the global optimum. To address this, we propose using safe reinforcement learning (SRL) to obtain a new and safe reference trajectory within MPC. By employing a learning-based approach, the MPC can explore solutions beyond the close neighborhood of the previous one, potentially finding global optima. We incorporate constrained reinforcement learning (CRL) to ensure safety in automated driving, using a handcrafted energy function-based safety index as the constraint objective to model safe and unsafe regions. Our approach utilizes a state-dependent Lagrangian multiplier, learned concurrently with the safe policy, to solve the CRL problem. Through experimentation in a highway scenario, we demonstrate the superiority of our approach over both MPC and SRL in terms of safety and performance measures.
title Safety Reinforced Model Predictive Control (SRMPC): Improving MPC with Reinforcement Learning for Motion Planning in Autonomous Driving
topic Robotics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.03774