Reinforcement learning algorithm with CTRNN in continuous action space

Abstract

There are some difficulties in applying traditional reinforcement learning algorithms to motion control tasks of robot. Because most algorithms are concerned with discrete actions and based on the assumption of complete observability of the state. This paper deals with these two problems by combining the reinforcement learning algorithm and CTRNN learning algorithm. We carried out an experiment on the pendulum swing-up task without rotational speed information. It is shown that the information about the rotational speed, which is considered as a hidden state, is estimated and encoded on the activation of a context neuron. As a result, this task is accomplished in several hundred trials using the proposed algorithm. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.