journal article·2025-09-30Open access

Vision-Based Adaptive Control of Robotic Arm Using MN-MD3+BC

Xianxia Zhang, Junjie Wu, Chang Zhao

Applied Sciences· Volume 15· Issue 19

Abstract

Aiming at the problems of traditional calibrated visual servo systems relying on precise model calibration and the high training cost and low efficiency of online reinforcement learning, this paper proposes a Multi-Network Mean Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient Algorithm with Behavior Cloning (MN-MD3+BC) for uncalibrated visual adaptive control of robotic arms. The algorithm improves upon the Twin Delayed Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (TD3) network framework by adopting an architecture with one actor network and three critic networks, along with corresponding target networks. By constructing a multi-critic network integration mechanism, the mean output of the networks is used as the final Q-value estimate, effectively reducing the estimation bias of a single critic network. Meanwhile, a behavior cloning regularization term is introduced to address the common distribution shift problem in offline reinforcement learning. Furthermore, to obtain a high-quality dataset, an innovative data recombination-driven dataset creation method is proposed, which reduces training costs and avoids the risks of real-world exploration. The trained policy network is embedded into the actual system as an adaptive controller, driving the robotic arm to gradually approach the target position through closed-loop control. The algorithm is applied to uncalibrated multi-degree-of-freedom robotic arm visual servo tasks, providing an adaptive and low-dependency solution for dynamic and complex scenarios. MATLAB simulations and experiments on the WPR1 platform demonstrate that, compared to traditional Jacobian matrix-based model-free methods, the proposed approach exhibits advantages in tracking accuracy, error convergence speed, and system stability.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: Robotic Path Planning Algorithms · Robot Manipulation and Learning · Teleoperation and Haptic Systems

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

Affiliations

School of Mechatronics and Automation, Shanghai University, Shanghai 200444, China

Shanghai Huawei Technology Co., Ltd., Shanghai 201210, China

Funding

National Natural Science Foundation of China

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