3,973 research outputs found
Learning to Run challenge solutions: Adapting reinforcement learning methods for neuromusculoskeletal environments
In the NIPS 2017 Learning to Run challenge, participants were tasked with
building a controller for a musculoskeletal model to make it run as fast as
possible through an obstacle course. Top participants were invited to describe
their algorithms. In this work, we present eight solutions that used deep
reinforcement learning approaches, based on algorithms such as Deep
Deterministic Policy Gradient, Proximal Policy Optimization, and Trust Region
Policy Optimization. Many solutions use similar relaxations and heuristics,
such as reward shaping, frame skipping, discretization of the action space,
symmetry, and policy blending. However, each of the eight teams implemented
different modifications of the known algorithms.Comment: 27 pages, 17 figure
Learning with Training Wheels: Speeding up Training with a Simple Controller for Deep Reinforcement Learning
Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has been applied successfully to many
robotic applications. However, the large number of trials needed for training
is a key issue. Most of existing techniques developed to improve training
efficiency (e.g. imitation) target on general tasks rather than being tailored
for robot applications, which have their specific context to benefit from. We
propose a novel framework, Assisted Reinforcement Learning, where a classical
controller (e.g. a PID controller) is used as an alternative, switchable policy
to speed up training of DRL for local planning and navigation problems. The
core idea is that the simple control law allows the robot to rapidly learn
sensible primitives, like driving in a straight line, instead of random
exploration. As the actor network becomes more advanced, it can then take over
to perform more complex actions, like obstacle avoidance. Eventually, the
simple controller can be discarded entirely. We show that not only does this
technique train faster, it also is less sensitive to the structure of the DRL
network and consistently outperforms a standard Deep Deterministic Policy
Gradient network. We demonstrate the results in both simulation and real-world
experiments.Comment: Published in ICRA2018. The code is now available at
https://github.com/xie9187/AsDDP
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