Autonomous Maneuvering Decision-Making Method for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based on Soft Actor-Critic Algorithm

Focusing on continuous action space methods for autonomous maneuvering decision making in 1v1 unmanned aerial vehicle scenarios, this paper first establishes a UAV kinematic model and a decision-making framework under the Markov Decision Process. Second, a continuous control strategy based on the Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) reinforcement learning algorithm is developed to generate precise maneuvering commands. Then, a multi-dimensional situation-coupled reward function is designed, introducing a Health Point (HP) metric to assess situational advantages and simulate cumulative effects quantitatively. Finally, extensive simulations in a custom Gym environment validate the effectiveness of the proposed method and its robustness under both ideal and noisy observation conditions.

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Publication Details

Journal
Drones
Published
2026-01-06
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/drones10010035
Primary Topic
Aerospace and Aviation Technology
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

Autonomous Maneuvering Decision-Making Method for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based on Soft Actor-Critic Algorithm

Su Cao, Shiming Quan, Huangchao Yu, Chang Wang
Drones
Aerospace and Aviation Technology
article

Autonomous Maneuvering Decision-Making Method for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based on Soft Actor-Critic Algorithm

Su Cao, Shiming Quan, Huangchao Yu, Chang Wang
article en

Abstract

Focusing on continuous action space methods for autonomous maneuvering decision making in 1v1 unmanned aerial vehicle scenarios, this paper first establishes a UAV kinematic model and a decision-making framework under the Markov Decision Process. Second, a continuous control strategy based on the Soft Actor-Critic (SAC) reinforcement learning algorithm is developed to generate precise maneuvering commands. Then, a multi-dimensional situation-coupled reward function is designed, introducing a Health Point (HP) metric to assess situational advantages and simulate cumulative effects quantitatively. Finally, extensive simulations in a custom Gym environment validate the effectiveness of the proposed method and its robustness under both ideal and noisy observation conditions.

DronesVol. 10(1)
National University of Defense Technology (CN)
Peace, Justice and strong institutions
Openalex Percentile: Top 95%
Aerospace and Aviation Technology
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Autonomous Maneuvering Decision-Making Method for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Based on Soft Actor-Critic Algorithm — Su Cao, Shiming Quan, et al. · Drones (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS