Variational inference for predictive and reactive controllers

Active inference is a general framework for decision-making prominent neuroscience that utilizes variational inference. Recent work in robotics adopted this framework for control and state-estimation; however, these approaches provide a form of ‘reactive’ control which fails to track fast-moving ref...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Baioumy, M, Mattamala, M, Hawes, N
Format: Conference item
Language:English
Published: 2020
Description
Summary:Active inference is a general framework for decision-making prominent neuroscience that utilizes variational inference. Recent work in robotics adopted this framework for control and state-estimation; however, these approaches provide a form of ‘reactive’ control which fails to track fast-moving reference trajectories. In this work, we present a variational inference predictive controller. Given a reference trajectory, the controller uses its forward dynamic model to predict future states and chooses appropriate actions. Furthermore, we highlight the limitation of the reactive controller such as the dependency between estimation and control.