Truck Backer-Upper

Has anyone studied and/or implemented a network training system such as described in "The Truck Backer-Upper: An Example of Self-Learning in Neural Networks" by Nguyen and Widrow? Here is a link to their article:

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They use an evolutionary approach to train a neural network to provide steering control for an 18-wheeler backing from an arbitrary location to a loading dock.

This type of problem is interesting because it must emulate and evaluate the steering control effect on the truck with it positioned in different locations and orientations. The same approach should be useful for a wide variety of applications such as training a neural network as an autopilot.

After reading their article twice, I thought I understood how to do it. But when I began to think seriously about implementing it, the fog rolled in.

This is quite a different problem than training a network on a fixed set of data. It's an interesting hybrid between evolutionary programming and neural networks: The end product is a neural network, but the training involves evolutionary methods.

If anyone is interested in this type of problem, I would like to discuss it.

Reply to
Phil Sherrod
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All I can say is that if you were going to implement this for real it doesn't sound a project that's best done with neural networks, at least not once you get to the point of having a realistic trajectory that you want the trailer to follow.

_Choosing_ a successful trajectory may need it, but even that, I suspect, could be better done by more traditional means.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

The problem is that the control system must guide the truck from an arbitrary location and orientation in the parking lot outside the warehouse. So it is not clear how you determine the "realistic trajectory" to get to the loading dock.

What approach would you use?

Reply to
Phil Sherrod

You start with the trailer at the dock and move it to the arbitrary position, a relatively easy calculation. Then, since you have perfect memory, you run the tape backward.

Jerry

Reply to
Jerry Avins

IIRC it was implemented with adaptive filtering methods, I have seen Prof Widrow's demonstration and it is very impressive. You could at a stretch claim the adaptive signal processing was a sort of neural net, I suppose.

Reply to
GavinCawley

"At a stretch claim... a sort of neural net"?

From their description: "The first stage involves the training of a neural network to be an emulator of the truck and trailer kinematics. The second stage involves the training of a neural-network controller to control the emulator."

The emulator consists of a neural network with 45 hidden units. The controller consists of a neural network with 25 hidden units.

Reply to
Phil Sherrod

I did say IIRC, obviously a case of IIRI ;o)

I saw the demo many years ago, may have been a different system, may just be my faulty memory, but I do remember being surprised about what could be achieved by relatively standard techniques. The important part of my message is that it is pretty impressive and well worth seeing!

Reply to
GavinCawley

If they're simulating something as simple and as deterministic as the truck's kinematics with a neural net, then they've just proved that they have the mindset that All Problems Should Be Solved With The Magic of Neural Nets.

Anything else they do just follows.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

I don't know. There are several candidate approaches that I can think of, starting with a simple linear system that gets the trailer position and direction right in the end then following that trajectory, and going out from there.

I suspect that the best answer would involve some sort of search of a space of several candidate trajectories, but I honestly don't know off the top of my head how I'd do it -- which is why I'm not going to rule out neural nets as being the best (or at least a quite viable) solution.

Reply to
Tim Wescott

I expect Bernard Widrow just might have thought of that one before moving on to a neural net! ;o)

Reply to
GavinCawley

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