Multirobot Coverage Path Planning Based on Deep Q-Network in Unknown Environment

Aiming at the problems of security, high repetition rate, and many restrictions of multirobot coverage path planning (MCPP) in an unknown environment, Deep Q-Network (DQN) is selected as a part of the method in this paper after considering its powerful approximation ability to the optimal action val...

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Main Authors: Wenhao Li, Tao Zhao, Songyi Dian
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Hindawi Limited 2022-01-01
Series:Journal of Robotics
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/6825902
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author Wenhao Li
Tao Zhao
Songyi Dian
author_facet Wenhao Li
Tao Zhao
Songyi Dian
author_sort Wenhao Li
collection DOAJ
description Aiming at the problems of security, high repetition rate, and many restrictions of multirobot coverage path planning (MCPP) in an unknown environment, Deep Q-Network (DQN) is selected as a part of the method in this paper after considering its powerful approximation ability to the optimal action value function. Then, a deduction method and some environments handling methods are proposed to improve the performance of the decision-making stage. The deduction method assumes the movement direction of each robot and counts the reward value obtained by the robots in this way and then determines the actual movement directions combined with DQN. For these reasons, the whole algorithm is divided into two parts: offline training and online decision-making. Online decision-making relies on the sliding-view method and probability statistics to deal with the nonstandard size and unknown environments and the deduction method to improve the efficiency of coverage. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed online method is close to that of the offline algorithm which needs long time optimization, and the proposed method is more stable as well. Some performance defects of current MCPP methods in an unknown environment are ameliorated in this study.
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spelling doaj.art-3128a2e50df841e586df589f7c80aa0c2022-12-22T03:59:09ZengHindawi LimitedJournal of Robotics1687-96192022-01-01202210.1155/2022/6825902Multirobot Coverage Path Planning Based on Deep Q-Network in Unknown EnvironmentWenhao Li0Tao Zhao1Songyi Dian2College of Electrical EngineeringCollege of Electrical EngineeringCollege of Electrical EngineeringAiming at the problems of security, high repetition rate, and many restrictions of multirobot coverage path planning (MCPP) in an unknown environment, Deep Q-Network (DQN) is selected as a part of the method in this paper after considering its powerful approximation ability to the optimal action value function. Then, a deduction method and some environments handling methods are proposed to improve the performance of the decision-making stage. The deduction method assumes the movement direction of each robot and counts the reward value obtained by the robots in this way and then determines the actual movement directions combined with DQN. For these reasons, the whole algorithm is divided into two parts: offline training and online decision-making. Online decision-making relies on the sliding-view method and probability statistics to deal with the nonstandard size and unknown environments and the deduction method to improve the efficiency of coverage. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed online method is close to that of the offline algorithm which needs long time optimization, and the proposed method is more stable as well. Some performance defects of current MCPP methods in an unknown environment are ameliorated in this study.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/6825902
spellingShingle Wenhao Li
Tao Zhao
Songyi Dian
Multirobot Coverage Path Planning Based on Deep Q-Network in Unknown Environment
Journal of Robotics
title Multirobot Coverage Path Planning Based on Deep Q-Network in Unknown Environment
title_full Multirobot Coverage Path Planning Based on Deep Q-Network in Unknown Environment
title_fullStr Multirobot Coverage Path Planning Based on Deep Q-Network in Unknown Environment
title_full_unstemmed Multirobot Coverage Path Planning Based on Deep Q-Network in Unknown Environment
title_short Multirobot Coverage Path Planning Based on Deep Q-Network in Unknown Environment
title_sort multirobot coverage path planning based on deep q network in unknown environment
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/6825902
work_keys_str_mv AT wenhaoli multirobotcoveragepathplanningbasedondeepqnetworkinunknownenvironment
AT taozhao multirobotcoveragepathplanningbasedondeepqnetworkinunknownenvironment
AT songyidian multirobotcoveragepathplanningbasedondeepqnetworkinunknownenvironment