An Adaptive Imitation Learning Framework for Robotic Complex Contact-Rich Insertion Tasks

Complex contact-rich insertion is a ubiquitous robotic manipulation skill and usually involves nonlinear and low-clearance insertion trajectories as well as varying force requirements. A hybrid trajectory and force learning framework can be utilized to generate high-quality trajectories by imitation learning and find suitable force control policies efficiently by reinforcement learning. However, with the mentioned approach, many human demonstrations are necessary to learn several tasks even when those tasks require topologically similar trajectories. Therefore, to reduce human repetitive teaching efforts for new tasks, we present an adaptive imitation framework for robot manipulation. The main contribution of this work is the development of a framework that introduces dynamic movement primitives into a hybrid trajectory and force learning framework to learn a specific class of complex contact-rich insertion tasks based on the trajectory profile of a single task instance belonging to the task class. Through experimental evaluations, we validate that the proposed framework is sample efficient, safer, and generalizes better at learning complex contact-rich insertion tasks on both simulation environments and on real hardware.

Evolutionary vs. imitation learning for neuromorphic control at the edge

Neuromorphic computing offers the opportunity to implement extremely low power artificial intelligence at the edge. Control applications, such as autonomous vehicles and robotics, are also of great interest for neuromorphic systems at the edge. It is not clear, however, what the best neuromorphic training approaches are for control applications at the edge. In this work, we implement and compare the performance of evolutionary optimization and imitation learning approaches on an autonomous race car control task using an edge neuromorphic implementation. We show that the evolutionary approaches tend to achieve better performing smaller network sizes that are well-suited to edge deployment, but they also take significantly longer to train. We also describe a workflow to allow for future algorithmic comparisons for neuromorphic hardware on control applications at the edge.

SDN-Enabled 3C Resource Integration in Green Internet of Electrical Vehicles

With the advocacy of green renewable energy, Electric Vehicles (EVs) have gradually become the mainstream in the automobile market. Due to the finite edge resources of the Internet of EVs, this paper integrates idle communication, caching and computational resources of EVs to enrich the available resources for vehicular task migration. Considering the limited capacity and resources of EVs, a distributed lightweight imitation learning-based efficient Task cOoperative migration Policy Integrating 3C resource policy, named TOPIC, is proposed to maximize the obtained quality of service. The experimental results based on the real-world traffic dataset of Hangzhou (China) demonstrate the QoS obtained based on the expert policy and agent policy of TOPIC is about 3 times higher than other representative policies.

Generative Adversarial Network for Imitation Learning from Single Demonstration

Imitation learning is an effective method for training an autonomous agent to accomplish a task by imitating expert behaviors in their demonstrations. However, traditional imitation learning methods require a large number of expert demonstrations in order to learn a complex behavior. Such a disadvantage has limited the potential of imitation learning in complex tasks where the expert demonstrations are not sufficient. In order to address the problem, we propose a Generative Adversarial Network-based model which is designed to learn optimal policies using only a single demonstration. The proposed model is evaluated on two simulated tasks in comparison with other methods. The results show that our proposed model is capable of completing considered tasks despite the limitation in the number of expert demonstrations, which clearly indicate the potential of our model.

Lane following Learning Based on Semantic Segmentation with Chroma Key and Image Superposition

There are various techniques to approach learning in autonomous driving; however, all of them suffer from some problems. In the case of imitation learning based on artificial neural networks, the system must learn to correctly identify the elements of the environment. In some cases, it takes a lot of effort to tag the images with the proper semantics. This is also relevant given the need to have very varied scenarios to train and to thus obtain an acceptable generalization capacity. In the present work, we propose a technique for automated semantic labeling. It is based on various learning phases using image superposition combining both scenarios with chromas and real indoor scenarios. This allows the generation of augmented datasets that facilitate the learning process. Further improvements by applying noise techniques are also studied. To carry out the validation, a small-scale car model is used that learns to automatically drive on a reduced circuit. A comparison with models that do not rely on semantic segmentation is also performed. The main contribution of our proposal is the possibility of generating datasets for real indoor scenarios with automatic semantic segmentation, without the need for endless human labeling tasks.

A Traffic-Aware Federated Imitation Learning Framework for Motion Control at Unsignalized Intersections with Internet of Vehicles

The wealth of data and the enhanced computation capabilities of Internet of Vehicles (IoV) enable the optimized motion control of vehicles passing through an intersection without traffic lights. However, more intersections and demands for privacy protection pose new challenges to motion control optimization. Federated Learning (FL) can protect privacy via model interaction in IoV, but traditional FL methods hardly deal with the transportation issue. To address the aforementioned issue, this study proposes a Traffic-Aware Federated Imitation learning framework for Motion Control (TAFI-MC), consisting of Vehicle Interactors (VIs), Edge Trainers (ETs), and a Cloud Aggregator (CA). An Imitation Learning (IL) algorithm is integrated into TAFI-MC to improve motion control. Furthermore, a loss-aware experience selection strategy is explored to reduce communication overhead between ETs and VIs. The experimental results show that the proposed TAFI-MC outperforms imitated rules in the respect of collision avoidance and driving comfort, and the experience selection strategy can reduce communication overheads while ensuring convergence.