Evaluating techniques for learning a feedback controller for low-cost manipulators

Robust manipulation with tractability in unstructured environments is a prominent hurdle in robotics. Learning algorithms to control robotic arms have introduced elegant solutions to the complexities faced in such systems. A novel method of Reinforcement Learning (RL), Gaussian Process Dynamic Programming (GPDP), yields promissing results for closed-loop control of a low-cost manipulator however research surrounding most RL techniques lack breadth of comparable experiments into the viability of particular learning techniques on equivalent environments. We introduce several model-based learning agents as mechanisms to control a noisy, low-cost robotic system. The agents were tested in a simulated domain for learning closed-loop policies of a simple task with no prior information. Then, the fidelity of the simulations is confirmed by application of GPDP to a physical system.