Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning Approach for Motion Planning in Mobile Robotics

The motion planning task for a mobile robot aims to generate a free-collision path from an initial point to a target point. This task may be highly complex because it requires a complete knowledge of the robot's environment. In this paper an option-based hierarchical learning approach is proposed to this problem in which basic behaviors are applied in order to accomplish the robot motion planning task. Each behavior is independently learned by the robot in the learning phase. Afterward, the robot learns to coordinate these basic behaviors to resolve the motion planning task. The application of the learning approach is validated with robot motion planning tasks in simulation as well as in an experimental environment. The results show a solution to the motion planning problem that can be highly successful in new unknown environments.