Learning to Rapidly Re-Contact the Lost Plume in Chemical Plume Tracing

Maintaining contact between the robot and plume is significant in chemical plume tracing (CPT). In the time immediately following the loss of chemical detection during the process of CPT, Track-Out activities bias the robot heading relative to the upwind direction, expecting to rapidly re-contact th...

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Main Authors: Meng-Li Cao, Qing-Hao Meng, Jia-Ying Wang, Bing Luo, Ya-Qi Jing, Shu-Gen Ma
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2015-03-01
Series:Sensors
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/15/4/7512
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author Meng-Li Cao
Qing-Hao Meng
Jia-Ying Wang
Bing Luo
Ya-Qi Jing
Shu-Gen Ma
author_facet Meng-Li Cao
Qing-Hao Meng
Jia-Ying Wang
Bing Luo
Ya-Qi Jing
Shu-Gen Ma
author_sort Meng-Li Cao
collection DOAJ
description Maintaining contact between the robot and plume is significant in chemical plume tracing (CPT). In the time immediately following the loss of chemical detection during the process of CPT, Track-Out activities bias the robot heading relative to the upwind direction, expecting to rapidly re-contact the plume. To determine the bias angle used in the Track-Out activity, we propose an online instance-based reinforcement learning method, namely virtual trail following (VTF). In VTF, action-value is generalized from recently stored instances of successful Track-Out activities. We also propose a collaborative VTF (cVTF) method, in which multiple robots store their own instances, and learn from the stored instances, in the same database. The proposed VTF and cVTF methods are compared with biased upwind surge (BUS) method, in which all Track-Out activities utilize an offline optimized universal bias angle, in an indoor environment with three different airflow fields. With respect to our experimental conditions, VTF and cVTF show stronger adaptability to different airflow environments than BUS, and furthermore, cVTF yields higher success rates and time-efficiencies than VTF.
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spelling doaj.art-68f56c141bd3489e85569ae0041a317c2022-12-22T03:10:38ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202015-03-011547512753610.3390/s150407512s150407512Learning to Rapidly Re-Contact the Lost Plume in Chemical Plume TracingMeng-Li Cao0Qing-Hao Meng1Jia-Ying Wang2Bing Luo3Ya-Qi Jing4Shu-Gen Ma5Institute of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, ChinaInstitute of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, ChinaInstitute of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, ChinaInstitute of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, ChinaInstitute of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, ChinaInstitute of Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Process Measurement and Control, School of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, ChinaMaintaining contact between the robot and plume is significant in chemical plume tracing (CPT). In the time immediately following the loss of chemical detection during the process of CPT, Track-Out activities bias the robot heading relative to the upwind direction, expecting to rapidly re-contact the plume. To determine the bias angle used in the Track-Out activity, we propose an online instance-based reinforcement learning method, namely virtual trail following (VTF). In VTF, action-value is generalized from recently stored instances of successful Track-Out activities. We also propose a collaborative VTF (cVTF) method, in which multiple robots store their own instances, and learn from the stored instances, in the same database. The proposed VTF and cVTF methods are compared with biased upwind surge (BUS) method, in which all Track-Out activities utilize an offline optimized universal bias angle, in an indoor environment with three different airflow fields. With respect to our experimental conditions, VTF and cVTF show stronger adaptability to different airflow environments than BUS, and furthermore, cVTF yields higher success rates and time-efficiencies than VTF.http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/15/4/7512chemical plume tracingreinforcement learningcollaborative learningbehavior-based robotics
spellingShingle Meng-Li Cao
Qing-Hao Meng
Jia-Ying Wang
Bing Luo
Ya-Qi Jing
Shu-Gen Ma
Learning to Rapidly Re-Contact the Lost Plume in Chemical Plume Tracing
Sensors
chemical plume tracing
reinforcement learning
collaborative learning
behavior-based robotics
title Learning to Rapidly Re-Contact the Lost Plume in Chemical Plume Tracing
title_full Learning to Rapidly Re-Contact the Lost Plume in Chemical Plume Tracing
title_fullStr Learning to Rapidly Re-Contact the Lost Plume in Chemical Plume Tracing
title_full_unstemmed Learning to Rapidly Re-Contact the Lost Plume in Chemical Plume Tracing
title_short Learning to Rapidly Re-Contact the Lost Plume in Chemical Plume Tracing
title_sort learning to rapidly re contact the lost plume in chemical plume tracing
topic chemical plume tracing
reinforcement learning
collaborative learning
behavior-based robotics
url http://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/15/4/7512
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