A Central Motor System Inspired Pre-training Reinforcement Learning for Robotic Control

Designing controllers to achieve natural motor capabilities for multi-joint robots is a significant challenge. However, animals in nature are naturally with basic motor abilities and can master various complex motor skills through acquired learning. On the basis of analyzing the mechanism of the central motor system in mammals, we propose a novel pre-training reinforcement learning algorithm that enables robots to learn rich motor skills and apply them to complex task environments without relying on external data. We first design a skill based network similar to the cerebellum by utilizing the selection mechanism of voluntary movements in the basal ganglia and the basic motor regulation ability of the cerebellum. Subsequently, by imitating the structure of advanced centers in the central motor system, we propose a high-level policy to generate different skill combinations, thereby enabling the robot to acquire natural motor abilities. We conduct experiments on 4 types of robots and 22 task environments, and the results show that the proposed method can enable different types of robots to achieve flexible motor skills. Overall, our research provides a promising framework for the design of neural network motor controllers.