End-to-End Navigation Strategy with Deep Reinforcement Learning for Mobile Robots

In this article, we develop a navigation strategy based on deep reinforcement learning (DRL) for mobile robots. Because of the large difference between simulation and reality, most of the trained DRL models cannot be directly migrated into real robots. Moreover, how to explore in a sparsely rewarded environment is also a long-standing problem of DRL. This article proposes an end-to-end navigation planner that translates sparse laser ranging results into movement actions. Using this highly abstract data as input, agents trained by simulation can be extended to the real scene for practical application. For map-less navigation across obstacles and traps, it is difficult to reach the target via random exploration. Curiosity is used to encourage agents to explore the state of an environment that has not been visited and as an additional reward for exploring behavior. The agent relies on the self-supervised model to predict the next state, based on the current state and the executed action. The prediction error is used as a measure of curiosity. The experimental results demonstrate that without any manual design features and previous demonstrations, the proposed method accomplishes map-less navigation in complex environments. Through a reward signal that is enhanced by intrinsic motivation, the agent explores more efficiently, and the learned strategy is more reliable.