Research Article
Open access
Published on 15 May 2025
Download pdf
Export citation

Multi-objective Optimization in Autonomous DrivingBasedon Reinforcement Learning

Chenyang Li *,1,
  • 1 Software college of Northeastern University , Chuangxin Road, Hunnan District, ShenyangCity, Liaoning Province, China

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

https://doi.org/10.54254/2755-2721/2025.22931

Abstract

With autonomous driving technology playing an increasingly important role in intelligent transportation systems, how to improve ride comfort while ensuring safety has become an urgent challenge. This paper proposes a multi-objective optimization approach for autonomous driving based on reinforcement learning. By designing a multi-objective reward function that integrates rewards based on position, speed, direction, and acceleration, the method aims to balance driving efficiency and ride comfort. The Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) algorithm is employed for training on the high-fidelity simulation platform MetaDrive, and experiments in multiple scenarios verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The experimental results show that as the comfort penalty coefficient in the reward function changes, the success rates for left turns, straight driving, and right turns exhibit a non-linear trend of first increasing then decreasing, with the best performance achieved when the parameter value is 0.001. This fully demonstrates the critical impact of parameter selection on the performance of autonomous driving strategies. It provides an optimization solution for reinforcement learning-based autonomous driving decision-making that balances safety and ride comfort, and offers a reference for subsequent related research.

Keywords

autonomous driving, multi-objective optimization, reinforcement learning, ride comfort, PPO

[1]. Wang, X. (2025). A Study on Autonomous Driving Control Strategy Considering Passenger Comfort - China Road Traffic Safety Network. China Road Traffic Safety Network. Retrieved from https://www.163.com/dy/article/JP181JVE05118O92.html[^39^].

[2]. Abouelazm, A., Michel, J., & Zöllner, J. M. (2024). A Review of Reward Functions for Reinforcement Learning in the Context of Autonomous Driving. arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.01440.

[3]. Wang, H., & Chan, C. Y. (2021). Multi-objective optimization for autonomous driving strategy based on soft actor–critic algorithm. Journal of Autonomous Intelligence, 3(1), 1-10.

[4]. Li, S. E. (2023). Reinforcement Learning for Sequential Decision and Optimal Control. Springer.

[5]. Chen, D., & Huang, X. (2024). End-to-end Autonomous Driving: Challenges and Frontiers. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

[6]. Pranav, S. C., & Singh, P. (2023). Recent Advancements in End-to-End Autonomous Driving using Deep Learning: A Survey. arXiv preprint arXiv:2307.04370. arXiv

[7]. Liu, H., Huang, Z., Wu, J., & Lv, C. (2021). Improved Deep Reinforcement Learning with Expert Demonstrations for Urban Autonomous Driving. arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.09243.

[8]. Liu, H., Huang, Z., Wu, J., & Lv, C. (2021). Improved Deep Reinforcement Learning with Expert Demonstrations for Urban Autonomous Driving. arXiv preprint arXiv:2102.09243.

[9]. Booher, J., Rohanimanesh, K., Xu, J., et al. (2024). CIMRL: Combining Imitation and Reinforcement Learning for Safe Autonomous Driving. arXiv preprint arXiv:2406.08878.

[10]. Yixu He, Yang Liu, Lan Yang, Xiaobo Qu. Exploring the design of reward functions in deep reinforcement learning-based vehicle velocity control algorithms. Transportation Letters, 2024, 16(10): 1338-1352. ISSN 1942-7867. https://doi.org/10.1080/19427867.2024.2305018.

Cite this article

Li,C. (2025). Multi-objective Optimization in Autonomous DrivingBasedon Reinforcement Learning. Applied and Computational Engineering,153,16-25.

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study will be available from the authors upon reasonable request.

Disclaimer/Publisher's Note

The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s). EWA Publishing and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.

About volume

Volume title: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Mechatronics and Smart Systems

Conference website: https://2025.confmss.org/
ISBN:978-1-80590-113-6(Print) / 978-1-80590-114-3(Online)
Conference date: 16 June 2025
Editor:Mian Umer Shafiq
Series: Applied and Computational Engineering
Volume number: Vol.153
ISSN:2755-2721(Print) / 2755-273X(Online)

© 2024 by the author(s). Licensee EWA Publishing, Oxford, UK. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. Authors who publish this series agree to the following terms:
1. Authors retain copyright and grant the series right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this series.
2. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the series's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this series.
3. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See Open access policy for details).