LExCI: A framework for reinforcement learning with embedded systems

Applied Intelligence, vol. 54, pp. 8384–8398

Abstract

Abstract Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have led to its application in many areas of everyday life. In the context of control engineering, reinforcement learning (RL) represents a particularly promising approach as it is centred around the idea of allowing an agent to freely interact with its environment to find an optimal strategy. One of the challenges professionals face when training and deploying RL agents is that the latter often have to run on dedicated embedded devices. This could be to integrate them into an existing toolchain or to satisfy certain performance criteria like real-time constraints. Conventional RL libraries, however, cannot be easily utilised in conjunction with that kind of hardware. In this paper, we present a framework named LExCI, the Learning and Experiencing Cycle Interface , which bridges this gap and provides end-users with a free and open-source tool for training agents on embedded systems using the open-source library RLlib. Its operability is demonstrated with two state-of-the-art RL-algorithms and a rapid control prototyping system.

Authors 7

1. Kevin Badalian corresponding Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Teaching and Research Area Mechatronics in Mobile Propulsion, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 4, Aachen, 52074, NRW, Germany

2. Lucas Koch Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Teaching and Research Area Mechatronics in Mobile Propulsion, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 4, Aachen, 52074, NRW, Germany

3. Tobias Brinkmann Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Teaching and Research Area Mechatronics in Mobile Propulsion, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 4, Aachen, 52074, NRW, Germany

4. Mario Picerno Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Teaching and Research Area Mechatronics in Mobile Propulsion, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 4, Aachen, 52074, NRW, Germany

5. Marius Wegener Aachen FEV Europe GmbH

   FEV (Germany)

   Affiliation as printed

   FEV Europe GmbH, Neuenhofstraße 181, Aachen, 52078, NRW, Germany

6. Sung-Yong Lee Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Teaching and Research Area Mechatronics in Mobile Propulsion, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 4, Aachen, 52074, NRW, Germany

7. Jakob Andert Aachen

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Teaching and Research Area Mechatronics in Mobile Propulsion, RWTH Aachen University, Forckenbeckstraße 4, Aachen, 52074, NRW, Germany