Learning-Based Sparsification of Dynamic Graphs in Robotic Exploration Algorithms

Abstract

Many robotic exploration algorithms rely on graph structures for frontier-based exploration and dynamic path planning. However, these graphs grow rapidly, accumulating redundant information and impacting performance. We present a transformer-based framework trained with Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) to prune these graphs during exploration, limiting their growth and reducing the accumulation of excess information. The framework was evaluated on simulations of a robotic agent using Rapidly Exploring Random Trees (RRT) to carry out frontier-based exploration, where the learned policy reduces graph size by up to 96%. We find preliminary evidence that our framework learns to associate pruning decisions with exploration outcomes despite sparse, delayed reward signals. We also observe that while intelligent pruning achieves a lower rate of exploration compared to baselines, it yields the lowest standard deviation, producing the most consistent exploration across varied environments. To the best of our knowledge, these results are the first suggesting the viability of RL in sparsification of dynamic graphs used in robotic exploration algorithms.