Jul 24, 2026 · cs.ROJ/K move · Enter open · S save
Tsuyoshi Kimoto, Akio Yamano, Kohei Honda, Takashi Iwasa
Osaka Metropolitan University, 1-1, Gakuen-cho, Naka-ku, Sakai, Osaka, Japan · Nagoya University, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan
This paper demonstrates how deep reinforcement learning (DRL) enables adaptive locomotion of snake-like robots in dynamically changing viscous environments, overcoming the inherent performance limitations of classical predefined control methods. The lack of direct onboard sensors for fluid properties necessitates formulating this task as a partially observable Markov decision process. By employing an asymmetric actor-critic framework, a teacher policy trained using privileged information available only in the physics simulator distills its knowledge into a student policy that relies solely on proprioceptive sensor information. Simulation results across a wide range of dynamic viscosity changes (
10−7 to
10−2m2/s) reveal that the DRL agent autonomously acquires non-sinusoidal adaptive gaits. These gaits improve propulsion velocity and transport efficiency, breaking the inherent limits of conventional sinusoidal and kinematic control. The findings establish that implicit environment inference via privileged information distillation is an effective approach to bypass the constraints of classical models under unpredictable fluid dynamics.