journal article·2025-01-30Open access

From Virtual to Reality: A Deep Reinforcement Learning Solution to Implement Autonomous Driving with 3D-LiDAR

Yuhan Chen, Chan Tong Lam, Giovanni Pau, Wei Ke

Applied Sciences· Volume 15· Issue 3

Abstract

Autonomous driving technology faces significant challenges in processing complex environmental data and making real-time decisions. Traditional supervised learning approaches heavily rely on extensive data labeling, which incurs substantial costs. This study presents a complete implementation framework combining Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) reinforcement learning with 3D-LiDAR perception techniques for practical application in autonomous driving. DDPG meets the continuous action space requirements of driving, and the point cloud processing module uses a traditional algorithm combined with attention mechanisms to provide high awareness of the environment. The solution is first validated in a simulation environment and then successfully migrated to a real environment based on a 1/10-scale F1tenth experimental vehicle. The experimental results show that the method proposed in this study is able to complete the autonomous driving task in the real environment, providing a feasible technical path for the engineering application of advanced sensor technology combined with complex learning algorithms in the field of autonomous driving.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Autonomous Vehicle Technology and Safety · Robotic Path Planning Algorithms · Reinforcement Learning in Robotics

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Faculty of Applied Sciences, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao SAR 999078, China

Department of Computer Science and Engineering—DISI, University of Bologna, 47521 Cesena, Italy

Autonomous Robotics Research Center, Technology Innovation Institute (TII), Abu Dhabi P.O. Box 9639, United Arab Emirates

Department of Computer Science, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA

Funding

Macao Polytechnic University

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