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Size each joint's action authority to its measured working range - lock a channel to zero only when its job is provably elsewhere

A lesson the Coach cites as per-joint-action-scale-lockdown.
Observed onceSim-to-real

Set per-joint action scales from measured target ranges and momentum decompositions: full authority for working channels, working-range authority for balance channels, zero for channels whose contribution is measured negligible - and prefer this structural quieting over perpetual reward penalties, keeping the contract dimensions intact.

Symptom

"Walks crooked" - roll and yaw channels wandered; hip_yaw peak-to-peak reached 22.3 deg in v11 while contributing essentially nothing to locomotion; a uniform action scale of 0.5 gave every joint the same authority regardless of its actual job.

Context

The v12 design replaced the scalar action scale with per-joint scales justified by measurements: pitch-class 0.5 (the gait's entire working channel - untouched); hip_yaw 0.0 - lossless because it carries only 1.4% of yaw momentum (v6 decomposition) and straight-line targets use merely +/-0.006-0.03 ("乱动纯属浪费"); roll 0.2 - NOT zero, because lateral balance and weight transfer are roll's unique job (locking it would degenerate into foot-edge rocking, "比现在更歪"), and 0.2 covers the measured working range +/-0.06-0.19 while "0.5 的另一半全是 '歪歪扭扭'的来源". Costs were accepted consciously: turning demoted to an observation row with a fallback (yaw 0 -> 0.1 in v13). Contract preserved: the 12-dim action interface unchanged, yaw values simply neutralized. The structural lockdown also RETIRED the reward-side hip_yaw_quiet penalty - "A 的 yaw=0 结构性取代,不再付奖励塑形成本".

Change

action_scale_joint pitch 0.5 / roll 0.2 / yaw 0.0 wired through robot.yaml -> policy_io (verified: all-ones action gives hip_yaw target exactly 0) -> Isaac action term, guarded by the contract checker ("它就是抓这种双侧不一致的").

Outcome

Designed and verified on the shared side before the lineage freeze; stands as the pattern for authority sizing: structure replaces reward shaping wherever a channel should simply not act.

Mechanism

Action scale is a per-channel authority budget; uniform budgets give noise channels the same voice as working channels, and reward-side quieting then pays a permanent shaping tax for what a zero scale provides for free. But zeroing is only lossless when decomposition proves the channel's contribution negligible AND no unique function (balance) lives there.

Conflicts

Wired and verified on the config/deploy side but never trained - the 2026-08-05 reset suspended v12 before the Isaac-side run.

Applies when

  • some joints wander without contributing to the task
  • a quieting penalty (deviation/L1) taxes every step forever
  • deciding action-space authority for a new task or robot
“yaw=0 是无损的:实测它只贡献 1.4% 偏航动量、直行目标只 ±0.006~0.03,乱动纯属浪费。… roll 不能为 0:横向平衡/重心换脚是它的独有职责,锁死会退化成脚缘摇摆(比现在更歪)。0.2 的依据:各代实测 roll 目标只用 ±0.06~0.19,0.5 的另一半全是"歪歪扭扭"的来源。”
train/WALK_V12_SPEC.md § 3. A —— 逐关节动作幅度(用户"只动 pitch"的安全版)