Online Next best view (NBV) planner for a 6-DOF robotic arm using Deep Reinforcement Learning for 3D scene reconstruction

Autonomous robotic systems require sensory information to carry out tasks such as mapping, exploration, and object manipulation. One approach for acquiring additional information about the environment is by employing a mobile manipulator and depth sensors. However, determining the most optimal views that yield the maximum information gain presents a significant challenge.

In this work, a scaled-down implementation of a grid-based next-best view (NBV) planner is presented for 3D object reconstruction. This approach focuses on utilising a Deep Q-network (DQN) with a constrained action space and minimal state information, leading to faster training and less complexity. The reinforcement learning approach can effectively find the NBVs in a 2D grid-based world.