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Poster

Learning to Control Self-Assembling Morphologies: A Study of Generalization via Modularity

Deepak Pathak · Christopher Lu · Trevor Darrell · Phillip Isola · Alexei Efros

East Exhibition Hall B + C #197

Keywords: [ Interaction-Based Deep Networks; Reinforcement Learning and Planning ] [ Applications -> Robotics; Deep Learning; Deep Learning ] [ Multi-Agent RL ] [ Reinforcement Learning and Planning ]


Abstract:

Contemporary sensorimotor learning approaches typically start with an existing complex agent (e.g., a robotic arm), which they learn to control. In contrast, this paper investigates a modular co-evolution strategy: a collection of primitive agents learns to dynamically self-assemble into composite bodies while also learning to coordinate their behavior to control these bodies. Each primitive agent consists of a limb with a motor attached at one end. Limbs may choose to link up to form collectives. When a limb initiates a link-up action, and there is another limb nearby, the latter is magnetically connected to the 'parent' limb's motor. This forms a new single agent, which may further link with other agents. In this way, complex morphologies can emerge, controlled by a policy whose architecture is in explicit correspondence with the morphology. We evaluate the performance of these dynamic and modular agents in simulated environments. We demonstrate better generalization to test-time changes both in the environment, as well as in the structure of the agent, compared to static and monolithic baselines. Project video and code are available at https://pathak22.github.io/modular-assemblies/

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