Cost-Aware Query Policies in Active Learning for Efficient Autonomous Robotic Exploration

In missions constrained by finite resources, efficient data collection is critical. Informative path planning, driven by automated decision-making, optimizes exploration by reducing the costs associated with accurate characterization of a target in an environment. Previous implementations of active learning did not consider the action cost for regression problems or only considered the action cost for classification problems. This paper analyzes an AL algorithm for Gaussian Process regression while incorporating action cost. The algorithm's performance is compared on various regression problems to include terrain mapping on diverse simulated surfaces along metrics of root mean square error, samples and distance until convergence, and model variance upon convergence. The cost-dependent acquisition policy doesn't organically optimize information gain over distance. Instead, the traditional uncertainty metric with a distance constraint best minimizes root-mean-square error over trajectory distance. This studys impact is to provide insight into incorporating action cost with AL methods to optimize exploration under realistic mission constraints.

Comparing Active Learning Performance Driven by Gaussian Processes or Bayesian Neural Networks for Constrained Trajectory Exploration

Robots with increasing autonomy progress our space exploration capabilities, particularly for in-situ exploration and sampling to stand in for human explorers. Currently, humans drive robots to meet scientific objectives, but depending on the robot's location, the exchange of information and driving commands between the human operator and robot may cause undue delays in mission fulfillment. An autonomous robot encoded with a scientific objective and an exploration strategy incurs no communication delays and can fulfill missions more quickly. Active learning algorithms offer this capability of intelligent exploration, but the underlying model structure varies the performance of the active learning algorithm in accurately forming an understanding of the environment. In this paper, we investigate the performance differences between active learning algorithms driven by Gaussian processes or Bayesian neural networks for exploration strategies encoded on agents that are constrained in their trajectories, like planetary surface rovers. These two active learning strategies were tested in a simulation environment against science-blind strategies to predict the spatial distribution of a variable of interest along multiple datasets. The performance metrics of interest are model accuracy in root mean squared (RMS) error, training time, model convergence, total distance traveled until convergence, and total samples until convergence. Active learning strategies encoded with Gaussian processes require less computation to train, converge to an accurate model more quickly, and propose trajectories of shorter distance, except in a few complex environments in which Bayesian neural networks achieve a more accurate model in the large data regime due to their more expressive functional bases. The paper concludes with advice on when and how to implement either exploration strategy for future space missions.