4,948 research outputs found
Deep Reinforcement Learning for Event-Triggered Control
Event-triggered control (ETC) methods can achieve high-performance control
with a significantly lower number of samples compared to usual, time-triggered
methods. These frameworks are often based on a mathematical model of the system
and specific designs of controller and event trigger. In this paper, we show
how deep reinforcement learning (DRL) algorithms can be leveraged to
simultaneously learn control and communication behavior from scratch, and
present a DRL approach that is particularly suitable for ETC. To our knowledge,
this is the first work to apply DRL to ETC. We validate the approach on
multiple control tasks and compare it to model-based event-triggering
frameworks. In particular, we demonstrate that it can, other than many
model-based ETC designs, be straightforwardly applied to nonlinear systems
Automatic LQR Tuning Based on Gaussian Process Global Optimization
This paper proposes an automatic controller tuning framework based on linear
optimal control combined with Bayesian optimization. With this framework, an
initial set of controller gains is automatically improved according to a
pre-defined performance objective evaluated from experimental data. The
underlying Bayesian optimization algorithm is Entropy Search, which represents
the latent objective as a Gaussian process and constructs an explicit belief
over the location of the objective minimum. This is used to maximize the
information gain from each experimental evaluation. Thus, this framework shall
yield improved controllers with fewer evaluations compared to alternative
approaches. A seven-degree-of-freedom robot arm balancing an inverted pole is
used as the experimental demonstrator. Results of a two- and four-dimensional
tuning problems highlight the method's potential for automatic controller
tuning on robotic platforms.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, to appear in IEEE 2016 International Conference
on Robotics and Automation. Video demonstration of the experiments available
at https://am.is.tuebingen.mpg.de/publications/marco_icra_201
Event-triggered Pulse Control with Model Learning (if Necessary)
In networked control systems, communication is a shared and therefore scarce
resource. Event-triggered control (ETC) can achieve high performance control
with a significantly reduced amount of samples compared to classical, periodic
control schemes. However, ETC methods usually rely on the availability of an
accurate dynamics model, which is oftentimes not readily available. In this
paper, we propose a novel event-triggered pulse control strategy that learns
dynamics models if necessary. In addition to adapting to changing dynamics, the
method also represents a suitable replacement for the integral part typically
used in periodic control.Comment: Accepted final version to appear in: Proc. of the American Control
Conference, 201
Evolvability signatures of generative encodings: beyond standard performance benchmarks
Evolutionary robotics is a promising approach to autonomously synthesize
machines with abilities that resemble those of animals, but the field suffers
from a lack of strong foundations. In particular, evolutionary systems are
currently assessed solely by the fitness score their evolved artifacts can
achieve for a specific task, whereas such fitness-based comparisons provide
limited insights about how the same system would evaluate on different tasks,
and its adaptive capabilities to respond to changes in fitness (e.g., from
damages to the machine, or in new situations). To counter these limitations, we
introduce the concept of "evolvability signatures", which picture the
post-mutation statistical distribution of both behavior diversity (how
different are the robot behaviors after a mutation?) and fitness values (how
different is the fitness after a mutation?). We tested the relevance of this
concept by evolving controllers for hexapod robot locomotion using five
different genotype-to-phenotype mappings (direct encoding, generative encoding
of open-loop and closed-loop central pattern generators, generative encoding of
neural networks, and single-unit pattern generators (SUPG)). We observed a
predictive relationship between the evolvability signature of each encoding and
the number of generations required by hexapods to adapt from incurred damages.
Our study also reveals that, across the five investigated encodings, the SUPG
scheme achieved the best evolvability signature, and was always foremost in
recovering an effective gait following robot damages. Overall, our evolvability
signatures neatly complement existing task-performance benchmarks, and pave the
way for stronger foundations for research in evolutionary robotics.Comment: 24 pages with 12 figures in the main text, and 4 supplementary
figures. Accepted at Information Sciences journal (in press). Supplemental
videos are available online at, see http://goo.gl/uyY1R
Safe Multi-Agent Interaction through Robust Control Barrier Functions with Learned Uncertainties
Robots operating in real world settings must navigate and maintain safety while interacting with many heterogeneous agents and obstacles. Multi-Agent Control Barrier Functions (CBF) have emerged as a computationally efficient tool to guarantee safety in multi-agent environments, but they assume perfect knowledge of both the robot dynamics and other agents' dynamics. While knowledge of the robot's dynamics might be reasonably well known, the heterogeneity of agents in real-world environments means there will always be considerable uncertainty in our prediction of other agents' dynamics. This work aims to learn high-confidence bounds for these dynamic uncertainties using Matrix-Variate Gaussian Process models, and incorporates them into a robust multi-agent CBF framework. We transform the resulting min-max robust CBF into a quadratic program, which can be efficiently solved in real time. We verify via simulation results that the nominal multi-agent CBF is often violated during agent interactions, whereas our robust formulation maintains safety with a much higher probability and adapts to learned uncertainties
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