Robust Contact-Rich Task Learning With Reinforcement Learning and Curriculum-Based Domain Randomization

We propose a framework for contact-rich path following with reinforcement learning based on a mixture of visual and tactile feedback to achieve path following on unknown environments. We employ a curriculum-based domain randomisation approach with a time-varying sampling distribution, rendering our approach is robust to parametric uncertainties in the robot-environment system. Based on evaluation in simulation for compliant path-following case studies with a random uncertain environment, and comparison with LBMPC and FDM methods, the robustness of the obtained policy over a stiffness range $10^{4}$ – $10^{9}$ N/m and friction range 0.1–1.2 is demonstrated. We extend this concept to unknown surfaces with various surface curvatures to enhance the robustness of the trained policy in terms of changes in surfaces. We demonstrate $\sim 15\times $ improvement in trajectory accuracy compared to the previous LBMPC method and $\sim 18\times $ improvement compared to using the FDM approach. We suggest the applications of the proposed method for learning more challenging tasks such as milling, which are difficult to model and dependent on a wide range of process variables.