Reinforcement Learning-Based Optimal Sensor Placement for Spatiotemporal Modeling

Zhi Wang, Han-Xiong Li, Chunlin Chen

Abstract: A reinforcement learning-based method is proposed for optimal sensor placement in the spatial domain for modeling distributed parameter systems (DPSs). First, a low-dimensional subspace, derived by Karhunen-Loève decomposition, is identified to capture the dominant dynamic features of the DPS. Second, a spatial objective function is proposed for the sensor placement. This function is defined in the obtained low-dimensional subspace by exploiting the time-space separation property of distributed processes, and in turn aims at minimizing the modeling error over the entire time and space domain. Third, the sensor placement configuration is mathematically formulated as a Markov decision process (MDP) with specified elements. Finally, the sensor locations are optimized through learning the optimal policies of the MDP according to the spatial objective function. The experimental results of a simulated catalytic rod and a real snap curing oven system are provided to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of the proposed method in solving the combinatorial optimization problems, such as optimal sensor placement.