Reinforcement Learning-Based Sequential Control Policy for Multiple Peg-in-Hole Assembly

Robotic assembly is widely utilized in large-scale manufacturing due to its high production efficiency, and the peg-in-hole assembly is a typical operation. While single peg-in-hole tasks have achieved great performance through reinforcement learning (RL) methods, multiple peg-in-hole assembly remai...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Xinyu Liu, Chao Zeng, Chenguang Yang, Jianwei Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Tsinghua University Press 2024-10-01
Series:CAAI Artificial Intelligence Research
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/AIR.2024.9150043
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841550161060298752
author Xinyu Liu
Chao Zeng
Chenguang Yang
Jianwei Zhang
author_facet Xinyu Liu
Chao Zeng
Chenguang Yang
Jianwei Zhang
author_sort Xinyu Liu
collection DOAJ
description Robotic assembly is widely utilized in large-scale manufacturing due to its high production efficiency, and the peg-in-hole assembly is a typical operation. While single peg-in-hole tasks have achieved great performance through reinforcement learning (RL) methods, multiple peg-in-hole assembly remains challenging due to complex geometry and physical constraints. To address this, we introduce a control policy workflow for multiple peg-in-hole assembly, dividing the task into three primitive sub-tasks: picking, alignment, and insertion to modularize the long-term task and improve sample efficiency. Sequential control policy (SeqPolicy), containing three control policies, is used to implement all the sub-tasks step-by-step. This approach introduces human knowledge to manage intermediate states, such as lifting height and aligning direction, thereby enabling flexible deployment across various scenarios. SeqPolicy demonstrated higher training efficiency with faster convergence and a higher success rate compared to the single control policy. Its adaptability is confirmed through generalization experiments involving objects with varying geometries. Recognizing the importance of object pose for control policies, a low-cost and adaptable method using visual representation containing objects’ pose information from RGB images is proposed to estimate objects’ pose in robot base frame directly in working scenarios. The representation is extracted by a Siamese-CNN network trained with self-supervised contrastive learning. Utilizing it, the alignment sub-task is successfully executed. These experiments validate the solution’s reusability and adaptability in multiple peg-in-hole scenarios.
format Article
id doaj-art-1735c233801b4573a641109d9a06d099
institution Kabale University
issn 2097-194X
2097-3691
language English
publishDate 2024-10-01
publisher Tsinghua University Press
record_format Article
series CAAI Artificial Intelligence Research
spelling doaj-art-1735c233801b4573a641109d9a06d0992025-01-10T06:44:32ZengTsinghua University PressCAAI Artificial Intelligence Research2097-194X2097-36912024-10-013915004310.26599/AIR.2024.9150043Reinforcement Learning-Based Sequential Control Policy for Multiple Peg-in-Hole AssemblyXinyu Liu0Chao Zeng1Chenguang Yang2Jianwei Zhang3Department of Electrical and Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby 2800, DenmarkDepartment of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UKDepartment of Computer Science, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, UKTAMS Group, Department of Informatics, University of Hamburg, Hamburg 22527, GermanyRobotic assembly is widely utilized in large-scale manufacturing due to its high production efficiency, and the peg-in-hole assembly is a typical operation. While single peg-in-hole tasks have achieved great performance through reinforcement learning (RL) methods, multiple peg-in-hole assembly remains challenging due to complex geometry and physical constraints. To address this, we introduce a control policy workflow for multiple peg-in-hole assembly, dividing the task into three primitive sub-tasks: picking, alignment, and insertion to modularize the long-term task and improve sample efficiency. Sequential control policy (SeqPolicy), containing three control policies, is used to implement all the sub-tasks step-by-step. This approach introduces human knowledge to manage intermediate states, such as lifting height and aligning direction, thereby enabling flexible deployment across various scenarios. SeqPolicy demonstrated higher training efficiency with faster convergence and a higher success rate compared to the single control policy. Its adaptability is confirmed through generalization experiments involving objects with varying geometries. Recognizing the importance of object pose for control policies, a low-cost and adaptable method using visual representation containing objects’ pose information from RGB images is proposed to estimate objects’ pose in robot base frame directly in working scenarios. The representation is extracted by a Siamese-CNN network trained with self-supervised contrastive learning. Utilizing it, the alignment sub-task is successfully executed. These experiments validate the solution’s reusability and adaptability in multiple peg-in-hole scenarios.https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/AIR.2024.9150043multiple peg-in-hole assemblydeep reinforcement learningself-supervised contrastive learning
spellingShingle Xinyu Liu
Chao Zeng
Chenguang Yang
Jianwei Zhang
Reinforcement Learning-Based Sequential Control Policy for Multiple Peg-in-Hole Assembly
CAAI Artificial Intelligence Research
multiple peg-in-hole assembly
deep reinforcement learning
self-supervised contrastive learning
title Reinforcement Learning-Based Sequential Control Policy for Multiple Peg-in-Hole Assembly
title_full Reinforcement Learning-Based Sequential Control Policy for Multiple Peg-in-Hole Assembly
title_fullStr Reinforcement Learning-Based Sequential Control Policy for Multiple Peg-in-Hole Assembly
title_full_unstemmed Reinforcement Learning-Based Sequential Control Policy for Multiple Peg-in-Hole Assembly
title_short Reinforcement Learning-Based Sequential Control Policy for Multiple Peg-in-Hole Assembly
title_sort reinforcement learning based sequential control policy for multiple peg in hole assembly
topic multiple peg-in-hole assembly
deep reinforcement learning
self-supervised contrastive learning
url https://www.sciopen.com/article/10.26599/AIR.2024.9150043
work_keys_str_mv AT xinyuliu reinforcementlearningbasedsequentialcontrolpolicyformultiplepeginholeassembly
AT chaozeng reinforcementlearningbasedsequentialcontrolpolicyformultiplepeginholeassembly
AT chenguangyang reinforcementlearningbasedsequentialcontrolpolicyformultiplepeginholeassembly
AT jianweizhang reinforcementlearningbasedsequentialcontrolpolicyformultiplepeginholeassembly