Biped dynamic walking using reinforcement learning

Abstract

This paper presents some results from a study of biped dynamic walking using reinforcement learning. During this study a hardware biped robot was built, a new reinforcement learning algorithm as well as a new learning architecture were developed. The biped learned dynamic walking without any previous knowledge about its dynamic model. The self scaling reinforcement (SSR) learning algorithm was developed in order to deal with the problem of reinforcement learning in continuous action domains. The learning architecture was developed in order to solve complex control problems. It uses different modules that consist of simple controllers and small neural networks. The architecture allows for easy incorporation of new modules that represent new knowledge, or new requirements for the desired task.