Inverse RL Scene Dynamics Learning for Nonlinear Predictive Control in Autonomous Vehicles

This article introduces the deep learning-based nonlinear model predictive controller with scene dynamics (DL-NMPC-SD) method for autonomous navigation. DL-NMPC-SD uses an a priori nominal vehicle model in combination with a scene dynamics model learned from temporal range sensing information. The scene dynamics model is responsible for estimating the desired vehicle trajectory, as well as to adjust the true system model used by the underlying model predictive controller. We propose to encode the scene dynamics model within the layers of a deep neural network, which acts as a nonlinear approximator for the high-order state space of the operating conditions. The model is learned based on temporal sequences of range-sensing observations and system states, both integrated by an Augmented Memory component. We use inverse reinforcement learning (IRL) and the Bellman optimality principle to train our learning controller with a modified version of the deep Q-learning (DQL) algorithm, enabling us to estimate the desired state trajectory as an optimal action-value function. We have evaluated DL-NMPC-SD against the baseline dynamic window approach (DWA), as well as against two state-of-the-art End2End and RL methods, respectively. The performance has been measured in three experiments: 1) in our GridSim virtual environment; 2) on indoor and outdoor navigation tasks using our RovisLab autonomous mobile test unit (AMTU) platform; and 3) on a full-scale autonomous test vehicle driving on public roads.