Safe operations of autonomous mobile robots in close proximity to humans, creates a need for enhanced trajectory tracking (with low tracking errors). Linear optimal control techniques such as Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) and Model Predictive Control (MPC) have been used successfully for low-speed applications while leveraging their model-based methodology with manageable computational demands. However, model and parameter uncertainties or other unmodeled nonlinearities may cause poor control actions and constraint violations. Nonlinear MPC has emerged as an alternate optimal-control approach but needs to overcome real-time deployment challenges (including fast sampling time, design complexity, and limited computational resources). In recent years, the optimal control-based deployments have benefitted enormously from the ability of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) to serve as universal function approximators. This has led to deployments in a plethora of previously inaccessible applications – but many aspects of generalizability, benchmarking, and systematic verification and validation coupled with benchmarking have emerged. This paper presents a novel approach to fusing Deep Reinforcement Learning-based (DRL) longitudinal control with a traditional PID lateral controller for autonomous navigation. Our approach follows (i) Generation of an adequate fidelity simulation scenario via a Real2Sim approach; (ii) training a DRL agent within this framework; (iii) Testing the performance and generalizability on alternate scenarios. We use an initial tuned set of the lateral PID controller gains for observing the vehicle response over a range of velocities. Then we use a DRL framework to generate policies for an optimal longitudinal controller that successfully complements the lateral PID to give the best tracking performance for the vehicle.
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Safe and Efficient Model Predictive Control Using Neural Networks: An Interior Point Approach
Model predictive control (MPC) provides a useful means for controlling systems with constraints, but suffers from the computational burden of repeatedly solving an optimization problem in real time. Offline (explicit) solutions for MPC attempt to alleviate real time computational challenges using either multiparametric programming or machine learning. The multiparametric approaches are typically applied to linear or quadratic MPC problems, while learning-based approaches can be more flexible and are less memory-intensive. Existing learning-based approaches offer significant speedups, but the challenge becomes ensuring constraint satisfaction while maintaining good performance. In this paper, we provide a neural network parameterization of MPC policies that explicitly encodes the constraints of the problem. By exploring the interior of the MPC feasible set in an unsupervised learning paradigm, the neural network finds better policies faster than projection-based methods and exhibits substantially shorter solve times. We use the proposed policy to solve a robust MPC problem, and demonstrate the performance and computational gains on a standard test system.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1807142
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10388612
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Decision and Control
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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