Journal of Shanghai University(Natural Science Edition) ›› 2023, Vol. 29 ›› Issue (1): 105-117.doi: 10.12066/j.issn.1007-2861.2365

• Research Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Application of priority deep deterministic strategy algorithm in autonomous driving

JIN Yanliang(), LIU Qianhong, JI Zeyu   

  1. School of Communication and Information Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China
  • Received:2020-11-27 Online:2023-02-28 Published:2023-03-28
  • Contact: JIN Yanliang E-mail:jinyanliang@staff.shu.edu.cn

Abstract:

The deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm is widely used in autonomous driving; however, some problems, such as the high proportion of inefficient policies, low training efficiency, and slow convergence due to uniform sampling, still need to be addressed. In this paper, a priority-based deep deterministic policy gradient (P-DDPG) algorithm is proposed to enhance sampling utilization, improve exploration strategies, and increase the neural network training efficiency by using priority sampling instead of uniform sampling and employing a new reward function as an evaluation criterion. Finally, the performance of P-DDPG is evaluated on the The Open Racing Car Simulator (TORCS) platform. The results show that the cumulative reward of P-DDPG significantly improve after 25 rounds compared with that of the DDPG algorithm. Furthermore, the training effect of DDPG is gradually obtained after 100 rounds, which is approximately 4 times higher than that of P-DDPG. The training efficiency and convergence speed are, therefore, enhanced by using P-DDPG instead of DDPG.

Key words: autonomous driving, deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG), priority experience, The Open Racing Car Simulator (TORCS)

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