A Pick-and-Throw Method for Enhancing Robotic Sorting Ability via Deep Reinforcement Learning

To promote the work capacity and efficiency in a weakly structured logistics sorting scene, a pick-and-throw method based on reinforcement learning is proposed. First, a D N-based learning algorithm is used to obtain a picking feasibility distribution map for guiding an optimal picking action. Second, Deep Deterministic Policy Gradient (DDPG) algorithm is utilized to train a throwing policy. The throwing policy outputs a throwing velocity of the end-effector of a robot to throw the picked object to a target area. In addition, a memory pool optimization algorithm is also proposed to enhance the convergence of the throwing policy. Experiments are conducted in both simulation and real scenarios and results demonstrate that the proposed method can improve the sorting efficiency and expand the sorting space significantly.