mlsanityData to 7 Oct 2026

Learning Autonomous Race Driving with Action Mapping Reinforcement Learning

arXiv 2406.14934 ↗First posted 21 Jun 2024cs.RO cs.SY eess.SYcited by 1

On the map: End-to-end autonomous driving → Reinforcement learning for driving

Abstract (arXiv)

Autonomous race driving poses a complex control challenge as vehicles must be operated at the edge of their handling limits to reduce lap times while respecting physical and safety constraints. This paper presents a novel reinforcement learning (RL)-based approach, incorporating the action mapping (AM) mechanism to manage state-dependent input constraints arising from limited tire-road friction. A numerical approximation method is proposed to implement AM, addressing the complex dynamics associated with the friction constraints. The AM mechanism also allows the learned driving policy to be generalized to different friction conditions. Experimental results in our developed race simulator demonstrate that the proposed AM-RL approach achieves superior lap times and better success rates compared to the conventional RL-based approaches. The generalization capability of driving policy with AM is also validated in the experiments.

Key facts. Cited by 1 paper in the map (data through 7 Oct 2026). Placed in Reinforcement learning for driving, one of 9 directions in End-to-end autonomous driving. Builds on 24 of its 46 references that are in the map. First posted on arXiv 21 Jun 2024.

Builds on

24 of 46 references.

References · 24

  1. 2017Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithmscited by 14,441
  2. 2018Soft Actor-Critic: Off-Policy Maximum Entropy Deep Reinforcement Learning with a Stochastic Actorcited by 4,635
  3. 2015Continuous control with deep reinforcement learningcited by 3,279
  4. 2018Addressing Function Approximation Error in Actor-Critic Methodscited by 2,302
  5. 2017Constrained Policy Optimizationcited by 928
  6. 2019A Survey of Deep Learning Techniques for Autonomous Drivingcited by 401
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  11. 2018Safe Exploration in Continuous Action Spacescited by 237
  12. 2018Learning-based Model Predictive Control for Safe Explorationcited by 116
12 more
  1. 2020Lidar for Autonomous Driving: The principles, challenges, and trends for automotive lidar and perception systemscited by 100
  2. 2017Information Theoretic Model Predictive Control: Theory and Applications to Autonomous Drivingcited by 81
  3. 2017Control of a Quadrotor with Reinforcement Learningcited by 75
  4. 2023Milestones in Autonomous Driving and Intelligent Vehicles: Survey of Surveyscited by 75
  5. 2020Super-Human Performance in Gran Turismo Sport Using Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 60
  6. 2020Computing Systems for Autonomous Driving: State-of-the-Art and Challengescited by 47
  7. 2018End-to-End Race Driving with Deep Reinforcement Learningcited by 38
  8. 2018Reinforcement Learning and Deep Learning based Lateral Control for Autonomous Drivingcited by 17
  9. 2019Learning How to Autonomously Race a Car: a Predictive Control Approachcited by 14
  10. 2021Formula RL: Deep Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Racing using Telemetry Datacited by 10
  11. 2017Real-Time Control for Autonomous Racing Based on Viability Theorycited by 8
  12. 2017Aggressive Deep Driving: Model Predictive Control with a CNN Cost Modelcited by 6

Built on by

Cited by year (2026 to 7 Oct)

Citing papers per year: 2026: 1.

1 paper.

  1. 2026Track-Guided Hierarchical Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Vehicle Drifting with Minimum-Lap-Time Planningcited by 0

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  2. 2022TC-Driver: Trajectory Conditioned Driving for Robust Autonomous Racing -- A Reinforcement Learning Approach
  3. 2025A Survey of Reinforcement Learning-Based Motion Planning for Autonomous Driving: Lessons Learned from a Driving Task Perspective
  4. 2025Self driving algorithm for an active four wheel drive racecar
  5. 2023Partial End-to-end Reinforcement Learning for Robustness Against Modelling Error in Autonomous Racing
  6. 2024A Reinforcement Learning-Boosted Motion Planning Framework: Comprehensive Generalization Performance in Autonomous Driving
  7. 2024Deep Reinforcement Learning for Local Path Following of an Autonomous Formula SAE Vehicle
  8. 2020Guided Policy Search Model-based Reinforcement Learning for Urban Autonomous Driving