# A Reinforcement Learning Approach for Robotic Unloading from Visual Observations

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.06621 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.06621/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 17 of its 32 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 12 Sep 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Playing Atari with Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1312.5602/) (2013)
- [Addressing Function Approximation Error in Actor-Critic Methods](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.09477/) (2018)
- [Deep Reinforcement Learning with Double Q-learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1509.06461/) (2015)
- [End-to-End Training of Deep Visuomotor Policies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1504.00702/) (2015)
- [QT-Opt: Scalable Deep Reinforcement Learning for Vision-Based Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.10293/) (2018)
- [CLIPort: What and Where Pathways for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.12098/) (2021)
- [Transporter Networks: Rearranging the Visual World for Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.14406/) (2020)
- [An Introduction to Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.12560/) (2018)
- [kPAM: KeyPoint Affordances for Category-Level Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.06684/) (2019)
- [Dense Object Nets: Learning Dense Visual Object Descriptors By and For Robotic Manipulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1806.08756/) (2018)
- [Unsupervised Learning of Object Keypoints for Perception and Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.11883/) (2019)
- [Self-Supervised Correspondence in Visuomotor Policy Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1909.06933/) (2019)
- [Equivariant Transporter Network](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.09400/) (2022)
- [Optimization Beyond the Convolution: Generalizing Spatial Relations with End-to-End Metric Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.00893/) (2017)
- [Planning, Learning and Reasoning Framework for Robot Truck Unloading](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.09453/) (2019)
- [Learning Optimal Decision Making for an Industrial Truck Unloading Robot using Minimal Simulator Runs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2105.05019/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Visually Robust Adversarial Imitation Learning from Videos with Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12792/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

In this work, we focus on a robotic unloading problem from visual observations, where robots are required to autonomously unload stacks of parcels using RGB-D images as their primary input source. While supervised and imitation learning have accomplished good results in these types of tasks, they heavily rely on labeled data, which are challenging to obtain in realistic scenarios. Our study aims to develop a sample efficient controller framework that can learn unloading tasks without the need for labeled data during the learning process. To tackle this challenge, we propose a hierarchical controller structure that combines a high-level decision-making module with classical motion control. The high-level module is trained using Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL), wherein we incorporate a safety bias mechanism and design a reward function tailored to this task. Our experiments demonstrate that both these elements play a crucial role in achieving improved learning performance. Furthermore, to ensure reproducibility and establish a benchmark for future research, we provide free access to our code and simulation.