Journal of Applied Data Sciences
Vol 6, No 4: December 2025

Enhancing Autonomous Vehicle Navigation in Urban Traffic Using CNN-Based Deep Q-Networks

Agus Perdana Windarto (STIKOM Tunas Bangsa, Pematangsiantar, Indonesia)
Solikhun Solikhun (STIKOM Tunas Bangsa, Pematangsiantar, Indonesia)
Anjar Wanto (STIKOM Tunas Bangsa, Pematangsiantar, Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
13 Sep 2025

Abstract

This research proposes a CNN-based Deep Q-Network (CNN-DQN) model to enhance the navigation capabilities of autonomous vehicles in complex urban environments. The model integrates CNN for spatial abstraction with reinforcement learning to enable end-to-end decision-making based on high-dimensional sensor data. The primary objective is to evaluate the impact of CNN-DQN state abstraction on the quality and stability of the resulting policy. Using a grid-based simulator, the agent is trained on a synthetic dataset representing urban traffic scenarios. The CNN-DQN model consistently outperforms standard DQN in multiple metrics: cumulative reward increased by 14.3%, loss convergence accelerated by 22%, and mean absolute error (MAE) reduced to 0.028. Furthermore, the model achieved a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.94 in predicted actions and demonstrated superior robustness under Gaussian noise perturbation, with reward loss limited to 6.18% compared to 18.7% in the baseline. Visualizations of CNN feature maps reveal spatial attention patterns that support efficient path planning. The action symmetry index confirms that the CNN-DQN agent exhibits consistent left-right decision behavior, validating its policy regularity. The novelty of this study lies in its combined use of deep spatial encoding and value-based reinforcement learning for structured, rule-based environments with real-time control implications. These findings indicate that CNN-enhanced reinforcement learning architectures can significantly improve autonomous navigation performance and robustness in dynamic urban settings.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

JADS

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT Control & Systems Engineering Decision Sciences, Operations Research & Management

Description

One of the current hot topics in science is data: how can datasets be used in scientific and scholarly research in a more reliable, citable and accountable way? Data is of paramount importance to scientific progress, yet most research data remains private. Enhancing the transparency of the processes ...