Asset Details
Do you wish to reserve the book?
Glider soaring via reinforcement learning in the field
Hey, we have placed the reservation for you!
By the way, why not check out events that you can attend while you pick your title.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place the reservation. Kindly try again later.
Are you sure you want to remove the book from the shelf?
Glider soaring via reinforcement learning in the field
Do you wish to request the book?
Glider soaring via reinforcement learning in the field
Please be aware that the book you have requested cannot be checked out. If you would like to checkout this book, you can reserve another copy
We have requested the book for you!
Your request is successful and it will be processed during the Library working hours. Please check the status of your request in My Requests.
Oops! Something went wrong.
Looks like we were not able to place your request. Kindly try again later.
Journal Article
Glider soaring via reinforcement learning in the field
2018
Overview
Soaring birds often rely on ascending thermal plumes (thermals) in the atmosphere as they search for prey or migrate across large distances
1
–
4
. The landscape of convective currents is rugged and shifts on timescales of a few minutes as thermals constantly form, disintegrate or are transported away by the wind
5
,
6
. How soaring birds find and navigate thermals within this complex landscape is unknown. Reinforcement learning
7
provides an appropriate framework in which to identify an effective navigational strategy as a sequence of decisions made in response to environmental cues. Here we use reinforcement learning to train a glider in the field to navigate atmospheric thermals autonomously. We equipped a glider of two-metre wingspan with a flight controller that precisely controlled the bank angle and pitch, modulating these at intervals with the aim of gaining as much lift as possible. A navigational strategy was determined solely from the glider’s pooled experiences, collected over several days in the field. The strategy relies on on-board methods to accurately estimate the local vertical wind accelerations and the roll-wise torques on the glider, which serve as navigational cues. We establish the validity of our learned flight policy through field experiments, numerical simulations and estimates of the noise in measurements caused by atmospheric turbulence. Our results highlight the role of vertical wind accelerations and roll-wise torques as effective mechanosensory cues for soaring birds and provide a navigational strategy that is directly applicable to the development of autonomous soaring vehicles.
A reinforcement learning approach allows a suitably equipped glider to navigate thermal plumes autonomously in an open field.
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group
