Identification of neural network model of robot to solve the optimal control problem

To calculate the optimal control, a satisfactory mathematical model of the control object is required. Further, when implementing the calculated controls on a real object, the same model can be used in robot navigation to predict its position and correct sensor data, therefore, it is important that the model adequately reflects the dynamics of the object. Model derivation is often time-consuming and sometimes even impossible using traditional methods. In view of the increasing diversity and extremely complex nature of control objects, including the variety of modern robotic systems, the identification problem is becoming increasingly important, which allows you to build a mathematical model of the control object, having input and output data about the system. The identification of a nonlinear system is of particular interest, since most real systems have nonlinear dynamics. And if earlier the identification of the system model consisted in the selection of the optimal parameters for the selected structure, then the emergence of modern machine learning methods opens up broader prospects and allows you to automate the identification process itself. In this paper, a wheeled robot with a differential drive in the Gazebo simulation environment, which is currently the most popular software package for the development and simulation of robotic systems, is considered as a control object. The mathematical model of the robot is unknown in advance. The main problem is that the existing mathematical models do not correspond to the real dynamics of the robot in the simulator. The paper considers the solution to the problem of identifying a mathematical model of a control object using machine learning technique of the neural networks. A new mixed approach is proposed. It is based on the use of well-known simple models of the object and identification of unaccounted dynamic properties of the object using a neural network based on a training sample. To generate training data, a software package was written that automates the collection process using two ROS nodes. To train the neural network, the PyTorch framework was used and an open source software package was created. Further, the identified object model is used to calculate the optimal control. The results of the computational experiment demonstrate the adequacy and performance of the resulting model. The presented approach based on a combination of a well-known mathematical model and an additional identified neural network model allows using the advantages of the accumulated physical apparatus and increasing its efficiency and accuracy through the use of modern machine learning tools.