scholarly journals Decision-Making for the Autonomous Navigation of Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships Based on Scene Division and Deep Reinforcement Learning

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (18) ◽  
pp. 4055 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhang ◽  
Wang ◽  
Liu ◽  
Chen

This research focuses on the adaptive navigation of maritime autonomous surface ships (MASSs) in an uncertain environment. To achieve intelligent obstacle avoidance of MASSs in a port, an autonomous navigation decision-making model based on hierarchical deep reinforcement learning is proposed. The model is mainly composed of two layers: the scene division layer and an autonomous navigation decision-making layer. The scene division layer mainly quantifies the sub-scenarios according to the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREG). This research divides the navigational situation of a ship into entities and attributes based on the ontology model and Protégé language. In the decision-making layer, we designed a deep Q-learning algorithm utilizing the environmental model, ship motion space, reward function, and search strategy to learn the environmental state in a quantized sub-scenario to train the navigation strategy. Finally, two sets of verification experiments of the deep reinforcement learning (DRL) and improved DRL algorithms were designed with Rizhao port as a study case. Moreover, the experimental data were analyzed in terms of the convergence trend, iterative path, and collision avoidance effect. The results indicate that the improved DRL algorithm could effectively improve the navigation safety and collision avoidance.

Entropy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 737
Author(s):  
Fengjie Sun ◽  
Xianchang Wang ◽  
Rui Zhang

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) can greatly reduce manpower in the agricultural plant protection such as watering, sowing, and pesticide spraying. It is essential to develop a Decision-making Support System (DSS) for UAVs to help them choose the correct action in states according to the policy. In an unknown environment, the method of formulating rules for UAVs to help them choose actions is not applicable, and it is a feasible solution to obtain the optimal policy through reinforcement learning. However, experiments show that the existing reinforcement learning algorithms cannot get the optimal policy for a UAV in the agricultural plant protection environment. In this work we propose an improved Q-learning algorithm based on similar state matching, and we prove theoretically that there has a greater probability for UAV choosing the optimal action according to the policy learned by the algorithm we proposed than the classic Q-learning algorithm in the agricultural plant protection environment. This proposed algorithm is implemented and tested on datasets that are evenly distributed based on real UAV parameters and real farm information. The performance evaluation of the algorithm is discussed in detail. Experimental results show that the algorithm we proposed can efficiently learn the optimal policy for UAVs in the agricultural plant protection environment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 856-892 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tingxiang Fan ◽  
Pinxin Long ◽  
Wenxi Liu ◽  
Jia Pan

Developing a safe and efficient collision-avoidance policy for multiple robots is challenging in the decentralized scenarios where each robot generates its paths with limited observation of other robots’ states and intentions. Prior distributed multi-robot collision-avoidance systems often require frequent inter-robot communication or agent-level features to plan a local collision-free action, which is not robust and computationally prohibitive. In addition, the performance of these methods is not comparable with their centralized counterparts in practice. In this article, we present a decentralized sensor-level collision-avoidance policy for multi-robot systems, which shows promising results in practical applications. In particular, our policy directly maps raw sensor measurements to an agent’s steering commands in terms of the movement velocity. As a first step toward reducing the performance gap between decentralized and centralized methods, we present a multi-scenario multi-stage training framework to learn an optimal policy. The policy is trained over a large number of robots in rich, complex environments simultaneously using a policy-gradient-based reinforcement-learning algorithm. The learning algorithm is also integrated into a hybrid control framework to further improve the policy’s robustness and effectiveness. We validate the learned sensor-level collision-3avoidance policy in a variety of simulated and real-world scenarios with thorough performance evaluations for large-scale multi-robot systems. The generalization of the learned policy is verified in a set of unseen scenarios including the navigation of a group of heterogeneous robots and a large-scale scenario with 100 robots. Although the policy is trained using simulation data only, we have successfully deployed it on physical robots with shapes and dynamics characteristics that are different from the simulated agents, in order to demonstrate the controller’s robustness against the simulation-to-real modeling error. Finally, we show that the collision-avoidance policy learned from multi-robot navigation tasks provides an excellent solution for safe and effective autonomous navigation for a single robot working in a dense real human crowd. Our learned policy enables a robot to make effective progress in a crowd without getting stuck. More importantly, the policy has been successfully deployed on different types of physical robot platforms without tedious parameter tuning. Videos are available at https://sites.google.com/view/hybridmrca .


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josias G. Batista ◽  
Felipe J. S. Vasconcelos ◽  
Kaio M. Ramos ◽  
Darielson A. Souza ◽  
José L. N. Silva

Industrial robots have grown over the years making production systems more and more efficient, requiring the need for efficient trajectory generation algorithms that optimize and, if possible, generate collision-free trajectories without interrupting the production process. In this work is presented the use of Reinforcement Learning (RL), based on the Q-Learning algorithm, in the trajectory generation of a robotic manipulator and also a comparison of its use with and without constraints of the manipulator kinematics, in order to generate collisionfree trajectories. The results of the simulations are presented with respect to the efficiency of the algorithm and its use in trajectory generation, a comparison of the computational cost for the use of constraints is also presented.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Huiqin Li ◽  
Yanling Li ◽  
Chuan He ◽  
Jianwei Zhan ◽  
Hui Zhang

In this paper, a cognitive electronic jamming decision-making method based on improved Q -learning is proposed to improve the efficiency of radar jamming decision-making. First, the method adopts the simulated annealing (SA) algorithm’s Metropolis criterion to enhance the exploration strategy, balancing the contradictory relationship between exploration and utilization in the algorithm to avoid falling into local optima. At the same time, the idea of stochastic gradient descent with warm restarts (SGDR) is introduced to improve the learning rate of the algorithm, which reduces the oscillation and improves convergence speed at the later stage of the algorithm iteration. Then, a cognitive electronic jamming decision-making model is constructed, and the improved Q -learning algorithm’s specific steps are given. The simulation experiment takes a multifunctional radar as an example to analyze the influence of exploration strategy and learning rate on decision-making performance. The results reveal that compared with the traditional Q -learning algorithm, the improved Q -learning algorithm proposed in this paper can fully explore and efficiently utilize and converge the results to a better solution at a faster speed. The number of iterations can be reduced to more than 50%, which proves the feasibility and effectiveness of the method applied to cognitive electronic jamming decision-making.


Author(s):  
Zhenhai Gao ◽  
Xiangtong Yan ◽  
Fei Gao ◽  
Lei He

Decision-making is one of the key parts of the research on vehicle longitudinal autonomous driving. Considering the behavior of human drivers when designing autonomous driving decision-making strategies is a current research hotspot. In longitudinal autonomous driving decision-making strategies, traditional rule-based decision-making strategies are difficult to apply to complex scenarios. Current decision-making methods that use reinforcement learning and deep reinforcement learning construct reward functions designed with safety, comfort, and economy. Compared with human drivers, the obtained decision strategies still have big gaps. Focusing on the above problems, this paper uses the driver’s behavior data to design the reward function of the deep reinforcement learning algorithm through BP neural network fitting, and uses the deep reinforcement learning DQN algorithm and the DDPG algorithm to establish two driver-like longitudinal autonomous driving decision-making models. The simulation experiment compares the decision-making effect of the two models with the driver curve. The results shows that the two algorithms can realize driver-like decision-making, and the consistency of the DDPG algorithm and human driver behavior is higher than that of the DQN algorithm, the effect of the DDPG algorithm is better than the DQN algorithm.


2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 172988141985318
Author(s):  
Zhenhai Gao ◽  
Tianjun Sun ◽  
Hongwei Xiao

In the development of autonomous driving, decision-making has become one of the technical difficulties. Traditional rule-based decision-making methods lack adaptive capacity when dealing with unfamiliar and complex traffic conditions. However, reinforcement learning shows the potential to solve sequential decision problems. In this article, an independent decision-making method based on reinforcement Q-learning is proposed. First, a Markov decision process model is established by analysis of car-following. Then, the state set and action set are designed by the synthesized consideration of driving simulator experimental results and driving risk principles. Furthermore, the reinforcement Q-learning algorithm is developed mainly based on the reward function and update function. Finally, the feasibility is verified through random simulation tests, and the improvement is made by comparative analysis with a traditional method.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 172988141881716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongbo Gao ◽  
Guanya Shi ◽  
Guotao Xie ◽  
Bo Cheng

There are still some problems need to be solved though there are a lot of achievements in the fields of automatic driving. One of those problems is the difficulty of designing a car-following decision-making system for complex traffic conditions. In recent years, reinforcement learning shows the potential in solving sequential decision optimization problems. In this article, we establish the reward function R of each driver data based on the inverse reinforcement learning algorithm, and r visualization is carried out, and then driving characteristics and following strategies are analyzed. At last, we show the efficiency of the proposed method by simulation in a highway environment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1056
Author(s):  
Chen Chen ◽  
Feng Ma ◽  
Xiaobin Xu ◽  
Yuwang Chen ◽  
Jin Wang

Ships are special machineries with large inertias and relatively weak driving forces. Simulating the manual operations of manipulating ships with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning techniques becomes more and more common, in which avoiding collisions in crowded waters may be the most challenging task. This research proposes a cooperative collision avoidance approach for multiple ships using a multi-agent deep reinforcement learning (MADRL) algorithm. Specifically, each ship is modeled as an individual agent, controlled by a Deep Q-Network (DQN) method and described by a dedicated ship motion model. Each agent observes the state of itself and other ships as well as the surrounding environment. Then, agents analyze the navigation situation and make motion decisions accordingly. In particular, specific reward function schemas are designed to simulate the degree of cooperation among agents. According to the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs), three typical scenarios of simulation, which are head-on, overtaking and crossing, are established to validate the proposed approach. With sufficient training of MADRL, the ship agents were capable of avoiding collisions through cooperation in narrow crowded waters. This method provides new insights for bionic modeling of ship operations, which is of important theoretical and practical significance.


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 587
Author(s):  
Joao Pedro de Carvalho ◽  
Roussos Dimitrakopoulos

This paper presents a new truck dispatching policy approach that is adaptive given different mining complex configurations in order to deliver supply material extracted by the shovels to the processors. The method aims to improve adherence to the operational plan and fleet utilization in a mining complex context. Several sources of operational uncertainty arising from the loading, hauling and dumping activities can influence the dispatching strategy. Given a fixed sequence of extraction of the mining blocks provided by the short-term plan, a discrete event simulator model emulates the interaction arising from these mining operations. The continuous repetition of this simulator and a reward function, associating a score value to each dispatching decision, generate sample experiences to train a deep Q-learning reinforcement learning model. The model learns from past dispatching experience, such that when a new task is required, a well-informed decision can be quickly taken. The approach is tested at a copper–gold mining complex, characterized by uncertainties in equipment performance and geological attributes, and the results show improvements in terms of production targets, metal production, and fleet management.


Aerospace ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
Pedro Andrade ◽  
Catarina Silva ◽  
Bernardete Ribeiro ◽  
Bruno F. Santos

This paper presents a Reinforcement Learning (RL) approach to optimize the long-term scheduling of maintenance for an aircraft fleet. The problem considers fleet status, maintenance capacity, and other maintenance constraints to schedule hangar checks for a specified time horizon. The checks are scheduled within an interval, and the goal is to, schedule them as close as possible to their due date. In doing so, the number of checks is reduced, and the fleet availability increases. A Deep Q-learning algorithm is used to optimize the scheduling policy. The model is validated in a real scenario using maintenance data from 45 aircraft. The maintenance plan that is generated with our approach is compared with a previous study, which presented a Dynamic Programming (DP) based approach and airline estimations for the same period. The results show a reduction in the number of checks scheduled, which indicates the potential of RL in solving this problem. The adaptability of RL is also tested by introducing small disturbances in the initial conditions. After training the model with these simulated scenarios, the results show the robustness of the RL approach and its ability to generate efficient maintenance plans in only a few seconds.


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