Hybrid Reinforcement Learning and Its Application to Biped Robot Control

Advanced Technology R&D Center Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Amagasaki, Hyogo 661-0001, Japan Abstract A learning system composed of linear control modules, reinforcement learningmodules and selection modules (a hybrid reinforcement learning system) is proposed for the fast learning of real-world control problems. The selection modules choose one appropriate control module dependent on the state. It learned the control on a sloped floor more quickly than the usual reinforcement learningbecause it did not need to learn the control on a flat floor, where the linear control module can control the robot. When it was trained by a 2-step learning (during the first learning step, the selection module was trained by a training procedure controlled onlyby the linear controller), it learned the control more quickly. The average number of trials (about 50) is so small that the learning system is applicable to real robot control. 1 Introduction Reinforcement learning has the ability to solve general control problems because it learns behavior through trial-and-error interactions with a dynamic environment.