Multi-Target Encirclement with Collision Avoidance via Deep Reinforcement Learning using Relational Graphs

In this paper, we propose a novel decentralized method based on deep reinforcement learning using robot-level and target-level relational graphs, to solve the problem of multi-target encirclement with collision avoidance (MECA). Specifically, the robot-level relational graphs, composed of three heterogeneous relational graphs between each robot and other robots, targets and obstacles, are modeled and learned through using graph attention networks (GATs) for extracting different spatial relational representations. Moreover, for each target within the observation of each robot, a target-level relational graph is built with GAT to construct spatial relations from the robot. Furthermore, the movement of each target is modeled by the target-level relational graph and learned through supervised learning for predicting the trajectory of the target. In addition, a knowledge-embedded compound reward function is defined to solve the multi-objective problem in MECA, and guide the policy learning for deriving the behavior of MECA. An actor-critic training algorithm based on the centralized training and decentralized execution framework is adopted to train the policy network. Simulation and real-world experiment results demonstrate the effectiveness and generalization of our method.