skip to main content
research-article

Dynamic terrain traversal skills using reinforcement learning

Published: 27 July 2015 Publication History

Abstract

The locomotion skills developed for physics-based characters most often target flat terrain. However, much of their potential lies with the creation of dynamic, momentum-based motions across more complex terrains. In this paper, we learn controllers that allow simulated characters to traverse terrains with gaps, steps, and walls using highly dynamic gaits. This is achieved using reinforcement learning, with careful attention given to the action representation, non-parametric approximation of both the value function and the policy; epsilon-greedy exploration; and the learning of a good state distance metric. The methods enable a 21-link planar dog and a 7-link planar biped to navigate challenging sequences of terrain using bounding and running gaits. We evaluate the impact of the key features of our skill learning pipeline on the resulting performance.

Supplementary Material

ZIP File (a80-peng.zip)
Supplemental files
MP4 File (a80.mp4)

References

[1]
Box2D, 2015. Box2d: A 2d physics engine for games, Jan. http://box2d.org.
[2]
Busoniu, L., Babuska, R., De Schutter, B., and Ernst, D. 2010. Reinforcement learning and dynamic programming using function approximators. CRC press.
[3]
Coros, S., Beaudoin, P., Yin, K. K., and van de Pann, M. 2008. Synthesis of constrained walking skills. ACM Trans. Graph. 27, 5, Article 113.
[4]
Coros, S., Beaudoin, P., and van de Panne, M. 2009. Robust task-based control policies for physics-based characters. ACM Transctions on Graphics 28, 5, Article 170.
[5]
Coros, S., Beaudoin, P., and van de Panne, M. 2010. Generalized biped walking control. ACM Transctions on Graphics 29, 4, Article 130.
[6]
Coros, S., Karpathy, A., Jones, B., Reveret, L., and van de Panne, M. 2011. Locomotion skills for simulated quadrupeds. ACM Transactions on Graphics 30, 4, Article 59.
[7]
de Lasa, M., Mordatch, I., and Hertzmann, A. 2010. Feature-based locomotion controllers. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 29, 4, 131.
[8]
Engel, Y., Mannor, S., and Meir, R. 2005. Reinforcement learning with gaussian processes. In Proceedings of the 22nd international conference on Machine learning, ACM, 201--208.
[9]
Fonteneau, R., Murphy, S. A., Wehenkel, L., and Ernst, D. 2013. Batch mode reinforcement learning based on the synthesis of artificial trajectories. Annals of operations research 208, 1, 383--416.
[10]
Geijtenbeek, T., and Pronost, N. 2012. Interactive character animation using simulated physics: A state-of-the-art review. In Computer Graphics Forum, vol. 31, 2492--2515.
[11]
Ha, S., and Liu, C. K. 2015. Iterative training of dynamic skills inspired by human coaching techniques. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG). to appear.
[12]
Ha, S., Ye, Y., and Liu, C. K. 2012. Falling and Landing Motion Control for Character Animation. ACM Transactions on Graphics 31, 6 (Nov.), 1.
[13]
Hansen, N. 2006. The cma evolution strategy: A comparing review. In Towards a New Evolutionary Computation, 75--102.
[14]
Jain, S., Ye, Y., and Liu, C. K. 2009. Optimization-based interactive motion synthesis. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 28, 1, 10.
[15]
Kwon, T., and Hodgins, J. 2010. Control systems for human running using an inverted pendulum model and a reference motion capture sequence. In Proc. of Symposium on Computer Animation, 129--138.
[16]
Lange, S., Gabel, T., and Riedmiller, M. 2012. Batch reinforcement learning. In Reinforcement Learning. Springer, 45--73.
[17]
Lee, J., and Lee, K. H. 2006. Precomputing avatar behavior from human motion data. Graphical Models 68, 2, 158--174.
[18]
Lee, Y., Lee, S. J., and Popović, Z. 2009. Compact character controllers. ACM Transctions on Graphics 28, 5, Article 169.
[19]
Lee, Y., Wampler, K., Bernstein, G., Popović, J., and Popović, Z. 2010. Motion fields for interactive character locomotion. ACM Transctions on Graphics 29, 6, Article 138.
[20]
Lee, Y., Kim, S., and Lee, J. 2010. Data-driven biped control. ACM Transctions on Graphics 29, 4, Article 129.
[21]
Levine, S., and Koltun, V. 2014. Learning complex neural network policies with trajectory optimization. In Proc. ICML 2014, 829--837.
[22]
Levine, S., Wang, J. M., Haraux, A., Popović, Z., and Koltun, V. 2012. Continuous character control with low-dimensional embeddings. ACM Transactions on Graphics 31, 4, 28.
[23]
Liu, L., Yin, K., van de Panne, M., and Guo, B. 2012. Terrain runner: control, parameterization, composition, and planning for highly dynamic motions. ACM Trans. Graph. 31, 6, 154.
[24]
Macchietto, A., Zordan, V., and Shelton, C. R. 2009. Momentum control for balance. In ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG), vol. 28, ACM, 80.
[25]
McCann, J., and Pollard, N. 2007. Responsive characters from motion fragments. ACM Transactions on Graphics 26, 3, Article 6.
[26]
Mordatch, I., de Lasa, M., and Hertzmann, A. 2010. Robust physics-based locomotion using low-dimensional planning. ACM Trans. Graph. 29, 4, Article 71.
[27]
Muja, M., and Lowe, D. G. 2009. Fast approximate nearest neighbors with automatic algorithm configuration. In VISAPP (1), 331--340.
[28]
Ormoneit, D., and Sen, Ś. 2002. Kernel-based reinforcement learning. Machine learning 49, 2-3, 161--178.
[29]
Raibert, M. H., and Hodgins, J. K. 1991. Animation of dynamic legged locomotion. In ACM SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics, vol. 25, ACM, 349--358.
[30]
Ross, S., Gordon, G., and Bagnell, A. 2011. A reduction of imitation learning and structured prediction to noregret online learning. Journal of Machine Learning Research 15, 627--635.
[31]
Stewart, A. J., and Cremer, J. F. 1992. Beyond keyframing: an algorithmic approach to animation. In Graphics Interface, 273--281.
[32]
Tan, J., Gu, Y., Liu, C. K., and Turk, G. 2014. Learning bicycle stunts. ACM Trans. Graph. 33, 4, 50:1--50:12.
[33]
Treuille, A., Lee, Y., and Popović, Z. 2007. Near-optimal character animation with continuous control. ACM Transactions on Graphics (TOG) 26, 3, Article 7.
[34]
van Hasselt, H., and Wiering, M. A. 2007. Reinforcement learning in continuous action spaces. In Approximate Dynamic Programming and Reinforcement Learning, 2007. ADPRL 2007. IEEE International Symposium on, IEEE, 272--279.
[35]
van Hasselt, H. 2012. Reinforcement learning in continuous state and action spaces. In Reinforcement Learning. Springer, 207--251.
[36]
Wang, J. M., Fleet, D. J., and Hertzmann, A. 2009. Optimizing walking controllers. ACM Transctions on Graphics 28, 5, Article 168.
[37]
Wei, X., Min, J., and Chai, J. 2011. Physically valid statistical models for human motion generation. ACM Transctions on Graphics 30, 3, Article 19.
[38]
Ye, Y., and Liu, C. K. 2010. Optimal feedback control for character animation using an abstract model. ACM Trans. Graph. 29, 4, Article 74.
[39]
Yin, K., Loken, K., and van de Panne, M. 2007. Simbicon: Simple biped locomotion control. ACM Transctions on Graphics 26, 3, Article 105.
[40]
Yin, K., Coros, S., Beaudoin, P., and van de Panne, M. 2008. Continuation methods for adapting simulated skills. ACM Transctions on Graphics 27, 3, Article 81.
[41]
Zordan, V. B., and Hodgins, J. K. 2002. Motion capture-driven simulations that hit and react. In Proc. of Symposium on Computer Animation, 89--96.

Cited By

View all
  • (2024)An Auto Obstacle Collision Avoidance System using Reinforcement Learning and Motion VAEJournal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society10.15701/kcgs.2024.30.4.130:4(1-10)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2024
  • (2024)Evolution-Based Shape and Behavior Co-Design of Virtual AgentsIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.335574530:12(7579-7591)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2024
  • (2023)Adaptive Tracking of a Single-Rigid-Body Character in Various EnvironmentsSIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Conference Papers10.1145/3610548.3618187(1-11)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2023
  • Show More Cited By

Index Terms

  1. Dynamic terrain traversal skills using reinforcement learning

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Transactions on Graphics
    ACM Transactions on Graphics  Volume 34, Issue 4
    August 2015
    1307 pages
    ISSN:0730-0301
    EISSN:1557-7368
    DOI:10.1145/2809654
    Issue’s Table of Contents
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 27 July 2015
    Published in TOG Volume 34, Issue 4

    Permissions

    Request permissions for this article.

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. computer animation
    2. physics simulation

    Qualifiers

    • Research-article

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)42
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)3
    Reflects downloads up to 02 Mar 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2024)An Auto Obstacle Collision Avoidance System using Reinforcement Learning and Motion VAEJournal of the Korea Computer Graphics Society10.15701/kcgs.2024.30.4.130:4(1-10)Online publication date: 1-Sep-2024
    • (2024)Evolution-Based Shape and Behavior Co-Design of Virtual AgentsIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2024.335574530:12(7579-7591)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2024
    • (2023)Adaptive Tracking of a Single-Rigid-Body Character in Various EnvironmentsSIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Conference Papers10.1145/3610548.3618187(1-11)Online publication date: 10-Dec-2023
    • (2023)Torque-Based Deep Reinforcement Learning for Task-and-Robot Agnostic Learning on Bipedal Robots Using Sim-to-Real TransferIEEE Robotics and Automation Letters10.1109/LRA.2023.33045618:10(6251-6258)Online publication date: Oct-2023
    • (2023)Evolving Physical Instinct for Morphology and Control Co-Adaption2023 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS)10.1109/IROS55552.2023.10342243(6616-6623)Online publication date: 1-Oct-2023
    • (2022)Learning Soccer Juggling Skills with Layer-wise Mixture-of-ExpertsACM SIGGRAPH 2022 Conference Proceedings10.1145/3528233.3530735(1-9)Online publication date: 27-Jul-2022
    • (2022)Physics-based character controllers using conditional VAEsACM Transactions on Graphics10.1145/3528223.353006741:4(1-12)Online publication date: 22-Jul-2022
    • (2022)Learning Task-Agnostic Action Spaces for Movement OptimizationIEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics10.1109/TVCG.2021.310009528:12(4700-4712)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2022
    • (2022)Learning Setup Policies: Reliable Transition Between Locomotion BehavioursIEEE Robotics and Automation Letters10.1109/LRA.2022.32075677:4(11958-11965)Online publication date: Oct-2022
    • (2022)Position Synchronization Control Algorithm of Legged Robot Based on DSP Centralized ControlMobile Networks and Applications10.1007/s11036-022-01914-w27:3(955-964)Online publication date: 1-Jun-2022
    • Show More Cited By

    View Options

    Login options

    Full Access

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media