Modular Control Architecture for Safe Marine Navigation: Reinforcement Learning and Predictive Safety Filters

Bibliographic Details
Title: Modular Control Architecture for Safe Marine Navigation: Reinforcement Learning and Predictive Safety Filters
Authors: Vaaler, Aksel, Husa, Svein Jostein, Menges, Daniel, Larsen, Thomas Nakken, Rasheed, Adil
Publication Year: 2023
Collection: Computer Science
Subject Terms: Computer Science - Robotics, Computer Science - Artificial Intelligence
More Details: Many autonomous systems face safety challenges, requiring robust closed-loop control to handle physical limitations and safety constraints. Real-world systems, like autonomous ships, encounter nonlinear dynamics and environmental disturbances. Reinforcement learning is increasingly used to adapt to complex scenarios, but standard frameworks ensuring safety and stability are lacking. Predictive Safety Filters (PSF) offer a promising solution, ensuring constraint satisfaction in learning-based control without explicit constraint handling. This modular approach allows using arbitrary control policies, with the safety filter optimizing proposed actions to meet physical and safety constraints. We apply this approach to marine navigation, combining RL with PSF on a simulated Cybership II model. The RL agent is trained on path following and collision avpodance, while the PSF monitors and modifies control actions for safety. Results demonstrate the PSF's effectiveness in maintaining safety without hindering the RL agent's learning rate and performance, evaluated against a standard RL agent without PSF.
Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures
Document Type: Working Paper
Access URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2312.01855
Accession Number: edsarx.2312.01855
Database: arXiv
More Details
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