Related papers: Model-Free versus Model-Based Reinforcement Learni…
Realtime model learning proves challenging for complex dynamical systems, such as drones flying in variable wind conditions. Machine learning technique such as deep neural networks have high representation power but is often too slow to…
This study presents a real-time guidance strategy for an unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can be used to enhance their flight endurance by utilizing {\sl insitu} measurements of wind speeds and wind gradients. In these strategies,…
It is challenging to model and control a tail-sitter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) because its blended wing body generates complicated nonlinear aerodynamic effects, such as wing lift, fuselage drag, and propeller-wing interactions. We…
Reinforcement Learning is divided in two main paradigms: model-free and model-based. Each of these two paradigms has strengths and limitations, and has been successfully applied to real world domains that are appropriate to its…
Current model-free adaptive control (MFAC) can hardly deal with the time delay problem in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. To solve this problem, a novel model-free adaptive predictive control (MFAPC) method is proposed.…
In this work we propose an approach to learn a robust policy for solving the pivoting task. Recently, several model-free continuous control algorithms were shown to learn successful policies without prior knowledge of the dynamics of the…
This paper presents a Markov chain model to dynamically emulate the effects of adverse (failure) flight conditions on fixed-wing, autonomous aircraft system actuators. It implements a PX4 Autopilot flight stack module that perturbs the…
Learning to control robots without requiring engineered models has been a long-term goal, promising diverse and novel applications. Yet, reinforcement learning has only achieved limited impact on real-time robot control due to its high…
The intrinsic high dimension of fluid dynamics is an inherent challenge to control of aerodynamic flows, and this is further complicated by a flow's nonlinear response to strong disturbances. Deep reinforcement learning, which takes…
Learning-based methods have improved locomotion skills of quadruped robots through deep reinforcement learning. However, the sim-to-real gap and low sample efficiency still limit the skill transfer. To address this issue, we propose an…
This paper presents a novel model-reference reinforcement learning control method for uncertain autonomous surface vehicles. The proposed control combines a conventional control method with deep reinforcement learning. With the conventional…
Reinforcement learning (RL) algorithms for real-world robotic applications need a data-efficient learning process and the ability to handle complex, unknown dynamical systems. These requirements are handled well by model-based and…
In this paper, we present a novel developmental reinforcement learning-based controller for a quadcopter with thrust vectoring capabilities. This multirotor UAV design has tilt-enabled rotors. It utilizes the rotor force magnitude and…
When learning to behave in a stochastic environment where safety is critical, such as driving a vehicle in traffic, it is natural for human drivers to plan fallback strategies as a backup to use if ever there is an unexpected change in the…
Model-free reinforcement learning (RL) is a powerful, general tool for learning complex behaviors. However, its sample efficiency is often impractically large for solving challenging real-world problems, even with off-policy algorithms such…
Fully actuated multirotor platforms decouple translational force generation from vehicle attitude, enabling independent control of position and orientation and shifting performance limitations from attitude authority to actuator dynamics…
This paper presents an adaptive autopilot for fixed-wing aircraft and compares its performance with a fixed-gain autopilot. The adaptive autopilot is constructed by augmenting the autopilot architecture with adaptive control laws that are…
Neglecting complex aerodynamic effects hinders high-speed yet high-precision multirotor autonomy. In this paper, we present a computationally efficient learning-based model predictive controller that simultaneously optimizes a trajectory…
As off-the-shelf (OTS) autopilots become more widely available and user-friendly and the drone market expands, safer, more efficient, and more complex motion planning and control will become necessary for fixed-wing aerial robotic…
In reinforcement learning (RL), an autonomous agent learns to perform complex tasks by maximizing an exogenous reward signal while interacting with its environment. In real-world applications, test conditions may differ substantially from…