Deep reinforcement learning-based controller for path following of an unmanned surface vehicle

In this paper, a deep reinforcement learning (DRL)-based controller for path following of an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) is proposed. The proposed controller can self-develop a vehicle’s path following capability by interacting with the nearby environment. A deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm, which is an actor-critic-based reinforcement learning algorithm, was adapted to capture the USV’s experience during the path-following trials. A Markov decision process model, which includes the state, action, and reward formulation, specially designed for the USV path-following problem is suggested. The control policy was trained with repeated trials of path-following simulation. The proposed method’s path-following and self-learning capabilities were validated through USV simulation and a free-running test of the full-scale USV.