Abstract
The paper presents dual arm ROV manipulation using deep reinforcement learning. The purpose of this underwater manipulator is to investigate and excavate natural resources in ocean, finding lost aircraft blackboxes and for performing other extremely dangerous tasks without endangering humans. This research work emphasizes on a self-learning approach using Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL). DRL technique allows ROV to learn the policy of performing manipulation task directly, from raw image data. Our proposed architecture maps the visual inputs (images) to control actions (output) and get reward after each action, which allows an agent to learn manipulation skill through trial and error method. We have trained our network in simulation. The raw images and rewards are directly provided by our simple Lua simulator. Our simulator achieve accuracy by considering underwater dynamic environmental conditions. Major goal of this research is to provide a smart self-learning way to achieve manipulation in highly dynamic underwater environment. The results showed that a dual robotic arm trained for a 3DOF movement successfully achieved target reaching task in a 2D space by considering real environmental factor.