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Build Reinforcement Learning Controller for Lunar Lander
Igor Sadalski
Igor Sadalski
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Build Reinforcement Learning Controller for Lunar Lander

Develop a reinforcement learning controller for a lunar lander and test it in simulation!

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Apply now
Mondays
 at
5:00
P.M.
 ET /
2:00
P.M.
PT
8 weeks, 2-3 hours per week
Intermediate
No experience required
No experience required
Some experience required
Degree and experience required

Description

From industrial automation with robotic arms to optimizing machine movement, in recent years many entry level mechanical engineering jobs in the US started requiring knowledge of machine learning based controlling techniques.   In this Build Project, you will wear the hat of Mechanical Engineer and you will develop an interactive Google Colab with reinforcement learning based controller that will control a simulated lunar lander. Under the supervision of an experienced industry expert you’ll learn the basic principles of reinforcement learning controllers and you will implement one from scratch using Python in a simulation environment and test it. You will become familiar with how mechanical engineers approach designing controllers for their mechanical systems and learn how to use common industry tools like Python.  All this will happen in an environment that simulates the operations of a real mechanical and control engineering team. 

Session timeline

  • Applications open
    December 1, 2024
  • Application deadline
    January 15, 2025
  • Project start date
    Week of July 8, 2024
    Week of
    February 3, 2025
  • Project end date
    Week of

What you will learn

  • List examples of real-world systems controlled with reinforcement learning (RL) and outline how RL works 
  • Develop Pytorch code to train a simple neural network for a digit classification 
  • Write a Python code to train RL controller that can land a simulated lunar lander

Project workshops

1
So what is Reinforcement Learning?
2
Zero-to-Hero Crash Course on Neural Networks
3
Hands-on neural network coding!
4
Learn about Deep Q-Networks
5
Get hands on experience with OpenAI Gymnasium
6
Improve Your DQN with Experience Replay and Target Network
7
Tune your Lander for Best Performance
8
Land Your Lunar Lander and Win Prizes!

Prerequisites

  • Intermediate skills of programming in Python: you should be able to write functions, classes, class attributes, for loops, if statements, break statements) 
  • Basic skills of plotting a simple 2D function with matplotlib and making a GIF from saved frames with IPython
  • Basic mathematics skills: differentiation, exponentiation, gradients 

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About the expert

Igor Sadalski

Mechanical Engineering Fellow
Open Avenues Foundation

Igor Sadalski is a Mechanical Engineering Build Fellow at Open Avenues, where he works with students leading projects in mechanical engineering, robotics and AI.

Igor is an AI Data Scientist at Somite.ai, where he focuses on both theoretical and engineering aspects of building transformer based foundational models for biology.

Igor has over 4 years of experience in the Engineering and Sciences field. Already in highschool, with his team, he won a silver medal for Poland in the international Young Physicist Tournament. During his undergraduate studies he twice received research scholarships from Caltech, where he worked on robotics and AI. Recently he was a visiting researcher at Harvard University working on efficient transformer based architectures.

He holds a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London.

A fun fact about Igor is that the family on his mother's side has a small honey business in Poland!

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