Learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamics with contraction-based regularization

© The Author(s) 2020. We propose a novel framework for learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamical systems for continuous control tasks in robotics. The key contribution is a control-theoretic regularizer for dynamics fitting rooted in the notion of stabilizability, a constraint which guarantees the e...

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Main Authors: Singh, Sumeet, Richards, Spencer M, Sindhwani, Vikas, Slotine, Jean-Jacques E, Pavone, Marco
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publications 2022
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139675
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author Singh, Sumeet
Richards, Spencer M
Sindhwani, Vikas
Slotine, Jean-Jacques E
Pavone, Marco
author_facet Singh, Sumeet
Richards, Spencer M
Sindhwani, Vikas
Slotine, Jean-Jacques E
Pavone, Marco
author_sort Singh, Sumeet
collection MIT
description © The Author(s) 2020. We propose a novel framework for learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamical systems for continuous control tasks in robotics. The key contribution is a control-theoretic regularizer for dynamics fitting rooted in the notion of stabilizability, a constraint which guarantees the existence of robust tracking controllers for arbitrary open-loop trajectories generated with the learned system. Leveraging tools from contraction theory and statistical learning in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, we formulate stabilizable dynamics learning as a functional optimization with a convex objective and bi-convex functional constraints. Under a mild structural assumption and relaxation of the functional constraints to sampling-based constraints, we derive the optimal solution with a modified representer theorem. Finally, we utilize random matrix feature approximations to reduce the dimensionality of the search parameters and formulate an iterative convex optimization algorithm that jointly fits the dynamics functions and searches for a certificate of stabilizability. We validate the proposed algorithm in simulation for a planar quadrotor, and on a quadrotor hardware testbed emulating planar dynamics. We verify, both in simulation and on hardware, significantly improved trajectory generation and tracking performance with the control-theoretic regularized model over models learned using traditional regression techniques, especially when learning from small supervised datasets. The results support the conjecture that the use of stabilizability constraints as a form of regularization can help prune the hypothesis space in a manner that is tailored to the downstream task of trajectory generation and feedback control. This produces models that are not only dramatically better conditioned, but also data efficient.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1396752022-09-27T22:50:25Z Learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamics with contraction-based regularization Singh, Sumeet Richards, Spencer M Sindhwani, Vikas Slotine, Jean-Jacques E Pavone, Marco © The Author(s) 2020. We propose a novel framework for learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamical systems for continuous control tasks in robotics. The key contribution is a control-theoretic regularizer for dynamics fitting rooted in the notion of stabilizability, a constraint which guarantees the existence of robust tracking controllers for arbitrary open-loop trajectories generated with the learned system. Leveraging tools from contraction theory and statistical learning in reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, we formulate stabilizable dynamics learning as a functional optimization with a convex objective and bi-convex functional constraints. Under a mild structural assumption and relaxation of the functional constraints to sampling-based constraints, we derive the optimal solution with a modified representer theorem. Finally, we utilize random matrix feature approximations to reduce the dimensionality of the search parameters and formulate an iterative convex optimization algorithm that jointly fits the dynamics functions and searches for a certificate of stabilizability. We validate the proposed algorithm in simulation for a planar quadrotor, and on a quadrotor hardware testbed emulating planar dynamics. We verify, both in simulation and on hardware, significantly improved trajectory generation and tracking performance with the control-theoretic regularized model over models learned using traditional regression techniques, especially when learning from small supervised datasets. The results support the conjecture that the use of stabilizability constraints as a form of regularization can help prune the hypothesis space in a manner that is tailored to the downstream task of trajectory generation and feedback control. This produces models that are not only dramatically better conditioned, but also data efficient. 2022-01-24T19:13:39Z 2022-01-24T19:13:39Z 2020 2022-01-24T19:10:30Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139675 Singh, Sumeet, Richards, Spencer M, Sindhwani, Vikas, Slotine, Jean-Jacques E and Pavone, Marco. 2020. "Learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamics with contraction-based regularization." International Journal of Robotics Research, 40 (10-11). en 10.1177/0278364920949931 International Journal of Robotics Research Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ application/pdf SAGE Publications arXiv
spellingShingle Singh, Sumeet
Richards, Spencer M
Sindhwani, Vikas
Slotine, Jean-Jacques E
Pavone, Marco
Learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamics with contraction-based regularization
title Learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamics with contraction-based regularization
title_full Learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamics with contraction-based regularization
title_fullStr Learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamics with contraction-based regularization
title_full_unstemmed Learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamics with contraction-based regularization
title_short Learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamics with contraction-based regularization
title_sort learning stabilizable nonlinear dynamics with contraction based regularization
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/139675
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